Historian Martyn Taylor explains how Bury St Edmunds' Langton Place shops and flats development sits on the site of a former garage

Langton Place is situated halfway down Hatter Street which was once the Jewish quarter of Bury St Edmunds and known then as Heathenmens Street.

Coincidental terrible events happened at Easter 1190 in Bury St Edmunds and in York, where many of the Jewish community chose suicide over genocide at Clifford’s Tower.

A similar persecution occurred in Bury when Jews from Heathenmens Street fled to the Abbey for sanctuary, chased there by townspeople who had accused them a few years earlier of crucifying a young boy, who became St Robert. Unfortunately, the Abbey gate was closed shut by Abbot Samson, who declared that they were not St Edmunds men, 57 people losing their lives.

The Langton Place development was made possible when an old steel-framed garage, owned by the Todd family and which advertised it could accommodate 100 parked cars under cover, caught the eye of developers.

In 1982 the garage was sold which, together with the ransom site of number 7 Whiting Street, enabled a through-way shopping development –plans were under way to create Langton Place.

The name comes from Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury, who was partly instrumental in creating Magna Carta which started in Bury in 1214 when 25 barons swore an oath at St Edmund’s shrine to compel King John to agree to Magna Carta.

During the Langton Place building work by local builders W J Baker, a limestone fireplace was found in-situ, a possible vestige of its former Jewish inhabitants.

The shopping precinct opened in 1987 with flats above the shops. At the Whiting Street end was the up-market interior designers Clement Joscelyn, who had moved from Guildhall Street and who lasted a good many years here. Since then many of the shops have had different occupiers perhaps reflecting the lack of footfall it really deserves.

HuwRays Autos subsequently became number 2 Langton Place, The Sanctuary, a small quality restaurant, for about 15 years. Later, Abbey News moved in from the corner of Hatter Street and Churchgate Street, with the business only closing recently.

Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.