‘A neat and beautiful theatre’: Tracing the surprising story of Bury St Edmunds Market Cross

On Cornhill, at the corner of Bury St Edmunds’ Great Market, stands an elegant neoclassical building: the town’s Market Cross. Designed by the influential Scottish architect Robert Adam, this structure recently celebrated its 250th birthday in its present form. Despite its mercantile name, its more recent history is distinctly theatrical. When I first encountered the colourful past of the cross, I was actually researching one of its neighbours: James Oakes’ Georgian townhouse in nearby Guildhall Street, which was designed by Adam’s contemporary, Sir John Soane, in 1789-1790. While browsing the collections of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, I came across four of Adam’s original