As Bury St Edmunds branch of Wilko, in Risbygate Street, prepares to close today, we take a look back at the site’s chequered history

With the Bury St Edmunds branch of Wilko set to close its doors for the last time today, we have taken a look back at the site’s history, the uses it has seen and changing retailers over the years.

The Wilko site – at 88-89 Risbygate Street, has had a somewhat chequered career.

The first commercial premises were that of the Risbygate Brewery, at the Risbygate Works, from numbers 83 to 87 Risbygate Street – although probably also overlapping into number 88.

The brewery offices were in the iconic grade II*-listed timber-framed property that was once two houses from the 16th-17th centuries.

Heavily restored internally, little remains of the original features.

The Risbygate Brewery – aka Clarkes Brewery – was owned by the Clarke Brothers, who were at one time rivals to Greene King.

For this reason, their portfolio of 15 owned and 13 licensed houses was purchased by Greene King in 1917 for £29,615 – a sum paid in various stocks and shares.

Harry Clarke went on to the management board of Greene King, taking responsibility for malting and barley operations, and a member of the Clarke family on the board of Greene King for many years.

The next occupant of the brewery site was Braham’s scrapyard, with grounds running nearly all the way down to Tayfen Road.

Harry Brahams, who lived at 147 King’s Road, was entrepreneurial, buying up scrap metal, rags and even rabbit skins.

One of his more colourful customers was the cantankerous Les Freeman, who was known as the last rag and bone man of Bury.

Les was easily recognisable with his flat cap, tied kerchief, drooping ‘fag’ and stockman’s coat. Woe betide anyone giving him short shrift in his business dealings there.

Brahams closed with the opening of Parkway all the way from Tayfen Road to the Westgate Street/Cullum Road Junction (also known as Hellfire Corner).

And this is when the Risbygate Street site’s history starts to become more interesting.

Looking through the site’s planning records, in March 1976 St Edmundsbury Borough Council granted permission to demolish the rear of 83/87 Risbygate Street.

The following year, planning approval was given to build a shop with storage and service access at 88-89 Risbygate Street and on land to the rear.

A similar proposal – including additional offices – was then given the green light in 1978.

However, altered plans, with access off Parkway, were refused in January 1979.

A further set of plans submitted in May 1979 was approved in November that year, while a final set of plans was withdrawn.

Construction work on the May 1979 plans must have gone ahead, as in October 1980 planning permission was granted to Anglia Commercial Properties Limited, of Brentwood, for a non-illuminated name symbol to hang outside the property.

With building work finished the supermarket opened as a Key Markets, changing at some point in the 1980s to become a Gateway when Key Markets moved to Mildenhall Road (to the site of the Co-op, which also closed just weeks ago).

Plans for various signage at 88-89 Risbygate Street were submitted in 1981 and 1982, but the site must have stayed largely unaltered until 1997, when Gateway asked to install external condensers.

By 1998 it was operating under the Somerfield brand, as records show the supermarket was refused permission to install illuminated external signs.

The branding changed again in the early noughties – to Kwik Save – with Roy’s of Wroxham subsequently moving in (before closing in 2007).

Plans were submitted t St Edmundsbury Borough Council to demolish the shop. These were refused in 2007.

At the same time, planners were asked to consider a scheme which would have seen a new retail unit built, 75 residential units, multi-storey and surface car parking, an altered access on to Parkway as well as a new access on to Risbygate Street.

These plans were also refused.

Finally, in 2011 Wilko opened a branch in the vacant store, with the retailer trading at the site for the past 12 years.

The former Brahams/ Clarkes offices alongside the Wilko site would eventually become offices for Focus 12 a charity for drug and alcohol rehabilitation supported by celebrities including Russell Brand and Davina McCall.

Unfortunately after the charity got into financial difficulties the building was sold in 2018 for £435,000. Rustico Italian restaurant is there now, while another neighbouring building in the Focus 12 portfolio is now an escape room attraction.

With Wilko departing, history will tell what happens next at 88-89 Risbygate Street.

Additional reporting by Camille Berriman