Bury St Edmunds town centre has seen a host of new businesses this year – from restaurants to art galleries, children’s centres and even an indoor crazy golf course
From restaurants to art galleries, children’s centres and indoor crazy golf courses.
It has been a year of change again in Bury St Edmunds with more than 10 new businesses opening in the town centre, while others said their goodbyes.
According to Mark Cordell, chief executive of Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District, change can be good for the high street, as sad as it is to see business leave, to maintain interest.
Overall he says the situation has seen stable, with ‘slight growth, and vacant units around seven per cent, which is half the national average.
He also says that major brands such as Primark moving into the arc is a good sign with the popular clothing chain store showing confidence in town.
The town continues its ‘foodie’ reputation with a number of restaurants, eateries and quirky additions.
One of the most notable restaurants is The Lark, an intimate restaurant on Angel Hill, serving seasonal small plates using local produce, which opened in February.
Within five months the restaurant, set up by James and Sophia Carn, had been listed in the Good Food Guide’s Top 100 local restaurants in the UK.
Then in November, it was also listed in the The Michelin Guide. The Guide said: “This small, sweet building overlooks an abbey and a cathedral in the centre of this historic market town” adding that customers can choose from a ‘great range’ of small plates that deliver carefully judged flavours with a Mediterranean influence.
Genuine Cornish pasties came to the town with the arrival of the Cornish Bakery in the Buttermarket, in March.
Customers flooded the shop as soon as it opened at the site of the former Palmers store, excited to try the offering.
Cornish Bakery is an independent chain, which has seen rapid growth in the last two years, in particular.
Originally founded in 1994, in Mevagissey, a fishing port in south Cornwall, it has since grown to more than 50 branches, nationwide.
All pasties are 100 per cent handmade with the majority of ingredients are sourced from Cornish suppliers.
These jostle for position in the food counters amongst focaccia, pizzetta, tortillas, savoury scones and ham hock toasties, viennoiseries, and a wide range of drinks, including iced mocha, chai latte, cloudy lemonade, and chocolate milkshake.
Cornish Bakery markets itself as offering a 'taste of Cornwall in every bite'.
The opening of Mowgli Street Food in Abbeygate Street also caused a stir in November.
At the site of the the former Bill’s restaurant, Mowgli offers Indian homemade recipe dishes and street food.
Since launching in 2014, Mowgli has grown to 19 sites across the country.
It is the vision of founder Nisha Katona MBE, with menus based on family recipes, focusing on how Indians eat in the privacy of their home kitchens and lunchtime street stalls.
A quirky addition to the town came in the form of Cookie Barista in St John’s Street, in March.
Ben Stamp’s first standalone shop offers freshly baked cookies, barista style coffee and authentic bubble tea, cookie barista gifts and soft toys.
Its American style cookies are described as ‘oversized and overfilled, big, fat and gooey’ with flavours ranging from double chocolate to white chocolate, oat and raisin or dark chocolate and walnut.
It also offers a large menu of classic milk teas, taro and matcha served with brown sugar syrup and tapioca pearls. Its fruit bubble teas have over 200 combinations kiwi, strawberry, mango, passion fruit, watermelon.
Dozens of people also gathered for the opening of the new ‘fast-casual’ chicken eatery in the arc, in August.
Replacing Carluccio’s restaurant, it is the chain’s first location in East Anglia, and created 25 jobs.
Slim Chickens serves a variety of chicken dishes, to eat in or take out, including wings and plant-based options, but its flagship product is hand-breaded chicken tenders.
The term ‘fast-casual’ is an American concept which means the venue does not offer full table service, but advertises ‘higher quality’ food than traditional fast food restaurants.
Two town centre pub, bar and restaurants also changed hands this year with The Kings Arms in Brentgovel Street, taken over by well-known local landlord, Sean Driscoll, and Damson and Wilde in Abbeygate Street taken over by successful Bury-based pub chain Gusto Pronto, run by David and Roxanne Marjoram.
A new bar also launched in St Andrew’s Street South in September.
Nightjars offers coffee, craft beer and cocktails. It followed a £200,000 revamp of the former Karooze Café Bar, by owners Punch Pubs.
A new concept was also launched in the town in Brentgovel Street, in place of cycle shop, Revel Outdoors.
Sneaky links is billed Bury’s ‘ultimate boozy crazy golf offering unforgettable first dates, friendly competitions, and vibey work socials’.
Guests work their way round the nine hole indoor crazy gold course while taking advantage of the fully licensed bar.
Another striking addition came in the form of Clarendon Fine Art in Abbeygate Street, in November
The gallery, which also sells paintings, is located at the former Coral betting shop, which town residents had complained had become an eyesore.
Clarendon Fine Art is the world’s largest gallery network with more than 80 across the UK, and now also in the US.
It offers visitors an art gallery experience, while also selling works from some of the greatest modern masters alongside contemporary artists, through a mix of limited edition, and signed prints, originals, and sculptures.
Current works include Banksy, The Connor Brothers, Lowri, Picasso, Dali, amongst others.
A range of new facilities also opened in the town centre for families and children this year with the launch of Joy Connection in Angel Hill and Little Wood Worms in Churchgate Street.
Joy Connection is a family focused café and creative hub offering a ‘unique, one-stop-shop for parents, children and creatives’.
The café downstairs is complemented by a lounge on the first floor. Families can also bring their own packed lunch to eat as they chat and play.
Upstairs there are also two play session spaces which host a range of groups and classes for children, parents, mums-to-be.
The centre also supports local creative groups.
Little Wood Worms also offers play sessions for children and features all wooden play equipment such as a wooden café, hairdressers, house and doctors’ surgery to encourage role play.
There is also a sensory room, reading space and a café area for parents to grab a hot drink and a piece of cake.
It’s aimed at newborns to seven-year-olds.
Babies and children are also well catered for by the opening of two independent baby, toddler and children’s shops.
Bimbi opened in May in the Traverse, followed by Ada Bay in Abbeygate Street in July.
Bimbi sells everything from children’s clothes to accessories and toys. It stocks brands from across Europe and Scandanvia, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, and Sweden.
Ada Baby meanwhile sells baby clothing and accessories including boots, sunglasses, blankets and comforters, with unique designs, with many of the products handmade in Turkey.
New technology offerings this year included the opening of CeX in Buttermarket and Mobile Blitz in the arc shopping centre.
CeX specialises in second-hand electronics including games, phones, consoles and laptops.
Customers can buy, sell and exchange items at the store.
Mobile Blitz meanwhile is a tech accessories and repair specialist.
It specialise in the purchase of used mobile phones and the sale of new and refurbished phones.
Vapers were also treated to a new shop, Time2Vape, in Abbeygate Street, which opened this summer.
Some of the businesses who said goodbye
Wilko, Risbygate Street
Carluccio’s, the arc Shopping Centre
Neal’s Yard Remedies, Abbeygate Street
Bill's restaurant, Abbeygate Street,
Auntie Pam’s sweet shop, The Traverse
Casa, in Risbygate Street,
Oxfam, Cornhill
The Shop, St John’s Street
