Building record FML 209 - Former Conservative Club, 10 Church Street

10 Church Street is a substantial and sophisticated early-19th century brick town house which occupies a highly conspicuous site in the Framlingham Conservation Area opposite St Michael’s church and the entrance to the castle. It was reputedly built for George Edwards, a wealthy Framlingham banker and merchant who left a considerable fortune of £100,000 on his death in 1836. By 1842 it belonged to his third son William, an attorney and insurance agent, whose eleven children may explain the large number of bedrooms. The house reflected the standard layout its period, with a central entrance passage leading to a staircase in a rear service range, but the latter was of three storeys instead of the usual two and a new southern wing was added at a relatively early date to create a second entrance. An unusual single storied street range on the north was interrupted by the gate to an inner courtyard and probably contained stables and vehicle sheds in the manner of a mews. It also included a heated room adjoining a side passage that may have been William’s insurance office. In 1911 the house was purchased from his grandson, a London surgeon, and converted into a Conservative Working Men’s Club by removing the entrance passage and adding a large Mock Gothic billiard room by John Albert Sherman of Ipswich. An Assembly Room was built in the courtyard three years later. The interior has since been heavily altered but its various changes are well documented in a series of historic plans and it retains many Georgian fixtures and fittings such as plaster cornices, architraves, coal grates and fire surrounds (S1)