A Year in Bury St Edmunds Town Centre – Celebrating 2025

As 2025 comes to an end, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the successes, celebrations, and achievements that have shaped this year in Bury St Edmunds. It has been a year full of events, awards, and community pride, highlighting everything that makes our town such a special place to live, work, and visit.

One of the most exciting additions this year has been the launch of our new Food & Drink Tours in partnership with the wonderful Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides. These two-and-a-half-hour guided experiences have taken visitors through the heart of Bury St Edmunds town centre, stopping at six independent businesses to enjoy bite-sized samples of food and drink and hearing about the business and the local history of the building and location. 

This year, we were proud to once again reach the finals of the UK’s Most Dog Friendly Town Awards, our third year in a row, finishing as runner-up for 2025 With around 140 businesses participating in our dog-friendly scheme, the blue paw-print sticker and water bowls across the town centre have continued to make Bury a welcoming destination for four-legged visitors and their owners.

2025 has also seen the successful introduction of the ShopSafe Alert Scheme. Following a trial earlier in the year, the system has been rolled out to help town centre businesses share secure intelligence and work together to reduce retail crime and anti-social behaviour, supported by Suffolk Police.

This year marked a milestone as the Bury St Edmunds Gift Card celebrated its fifth anniversary, approximately generating £185,000 in gift card spend in the Bury St Edmunds town centre.For half a decade, the card has supported local businesses and encouraged shoppers to spend locally, especially during the festive season. So, if you’re still looking for that perfect gift, why not treat your loved one to a gift card, all while supporting your favourite local businesses? The Bury St Edmunds Gift Card is accepted in over 80 businesses across the town, and some of your favourite national brands as well as independent businesses. 

We’ve also had the pleasure to work with some incredible partners this year, including West Suffolk Council, Bury St Edmunds Town Council, and the arc Shopping Centre, to bring festive experiences to the town. Highlights include the family fairground rides in the Abbey Gardens and the synthetic ice skating rink coming to the arc Shopping Centre from 23 December to 5 January, open daily from 11am–5pm (closed on Christmas Day).

A standout moment this year was seeing Bury in Bloom awarded Gold and named the Best Large Town in the 2025 Anglia in Bloom Awards. Their commitment to creating beautiful, vibrant spaces continues to brighten our streets and bring pride to the community.

This year’s events calendar in Bury St Edmunds town centre was packed with memorable moments. 

The Spring Fayre offered a lively Bank Holiday weekend full of stalls, crafts, and family fun, including the urban beach and mini golf at arc shopping centre. The Food & Drink Festival featured top chefs, including Ching-He Huang MBE, alongside chefs from local restaurants and food and drink eateries including, Zack Deakins from 1921, Ruben Bel and Jack Grestock from Bellota, Alex Rotherham from Bay Tree, and many other fantastic chefs!  Visitors enjoyed a wide range of flavours and live cookery demonstration as well as Farmers’ Market on Angell Hill, fairground rides and so much more for everyone to enjoy. 

We rounded off the year with our Christmas Lights Event, bringing festive cheer to the town centre. Highlights included special appearances by the Magical Polar Bear and the Snow Lion, live performances from local schools, festive charity, craft, and gift stalls, fairground rides, and visits from Santa, the Snow Queen, and her friends.

Our Christmas Window Competition has just finished. Javelin was announced as the winner, securing their third win since the competition began in 2010, following previous wins in 2014 and 2019. Bonded by Hair in The Traverse claimed second place, while The Flower Hut on St John’s Street took third place, with both businesses participating in the competition for the first time.

Looking back on 2025, it was a year packed with events that encouraged people to explore and engage with Bury St Edmunds town centre. The 7^th anniversary Ale Trail once again celebrated the town centre’s rich brewing heritage across 25 venues, driving footfall and giving the locals and visitors a fun way to discover Bury St Edmunds’ pubs, bars, ales and craft beers. 

This year, also saw us organise two successful activity trails to commemorate key moments in history. To mark the 80^th anniversary of VE Day, businesses across the town were invited to display World War II themed items, encouraging those taking part in the trail to uncover 10 different objects hidden in participating businesses. Following its success  and popularity with both the businesses and participants, a second trail was then launched in July to commemorate VJ Day. 

In 2025, the Bury St Edmunds and Beyond tourism brand delivered three targeted digital marketing and PR campaigns aimed at driving visitation from outside the local area and strengthening the town’s profile as a must-visit destination. From January to March, the Spooky Bury St Edmunds campaign capitalised on the rising trend of dark tourism, positioning the town as a destination rich in ghost stories, witchcraft history and compelling, lesser-known narratives. The campaign successfully broadened Bury St Edmunds’ appeal and attracted new audiences seeking unique and immersive experiences. From September through to the Christmas period, activity focused on reinforcing Bury St Edmunds’ reputation as the Foodie Capital of Suffolk, highlighting its diverse hospitality offer, independent businesses and strong food and drink credentials. This momentum carried into the Christmas in Bury St Edmunds campaign, which achieved record engagement levels. The Christmas guide attracted unprecedented traffic, demonstrating strong demand and playing a key role in helping visitors plan and book their festive trips to Bury St Edmunds.

One of the town centre’s defibrillators received a significant upgrade this year, ensuring the lifesaving equipment remains reliable and easily accessible. The unit on the wall of McDonald’s on Cornhill was fitted with a brand-new cabinet, now capable of housing both the defibrillator and a community bleed kit. This makes it the first 24-hour publicly accessible emergency unit in the town centre to include a bleed kit. Across the town centre, there are now seven 24-hour publicly available defibrillators, with a further nine located within businesses for use during their opening hours.

We proudly celebrated Independents’ Day UK , across two days, Friday July 4^th and Saturday July 5^th .championing the brilliant shops and hospitality businesses that give Bury St Edmunds town centre its unique character. To mark the occasion, we  launched a new video celebrating our independent businesses, capturing their stories, passion, and the warm welcome they bring to Bury St Edmunds. Alongside this, we wrote a series of blogs focusing on the history of these businesses and what brough them to the Bury St Edmunds town centre. 

2025 was a remarkable year for recognition across Bury St Edmunds. Highlights included the Angel Hotel winning the Customer Service Award, sponsored by Our Bury St Edmunds BID, at the Bury Free Press Business Awards. At the same time, Bellota and Hestia Clinic were recognised as runners-up, with Hestia taking Small Business of the Year award. Bay Tree featured in National Geographic Traveller Food and received the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award for a second consecutive year and The Wine Cellar was named a finalist for Start-Up of the Year! The popular Mexican restaurant Amigos, located on Brentgovel Street, was recognised at the Food Awards England, taking home the award for Best Mexican Restaurant.

Our local food scene also shone at the Velvet Magazine Food & Drink Awards, with Lark  Restaurant, Pea Porridge, The Angel Hotel, and Midgar all taking top honours. Wooster’s Bakery received national acclaim from The Times and praise from Nigella Lawson for their exceptional malt loaf, while Pea Porridge retained its Michelin Star for the fourth year running. Lark Restaurant was once again nominated for The Good Food Guide’s Top 100 Best Local Restaurants, and 1921 Angel Hill was also featured in the guide. Bellota also received well-deserved recognition this year, having been featured in the Michelin Guide, further highlighting the quality and diversity of Bury St Edmunds’ independent food scene as  Suffolk’s Foodie Capital.

This year, we were delighted to welcome a diverse range of new businesses to the town centre, each adding something unique to Bury St Edmunds. Bonded by Hair joined us in The Traverse, the popular market stall Meat & Greet opened its first restaurant on Whiting Street, Bellota opened on Churchgate Street, and Hopsters opened on Short Brackland Street

Retail also saw exciting additions, with Rituals opening at arc shopping centre, while the Flower Hut and Sugartown Toys brought fresh shopping experiences to the high street. We also welcomed several relocations within the town centre, including The Hestia Clinic, Edit and Alema Coffee, who moved from Baxter Street to Abbeygate Street. 

As we wrap up another wonderful year and celebrate multiple achievements, there is so much to be proud of in Bury St Edmunds, with even more to look forward to in 2026. We’d like to thank our businesses and partners for working with us on multiple projects and initiatives, the residents and visitors for constantly supporting us and everyone who has contributed to another memorable year in our town centre. We’d like to wish you all a happy Christmas and an unforgettable New Year!   

If you’re looking for things to do and see over Christmas, or perhaps you’re looking to discover a new café or restaurant, make sure to explore our What’s On, and Food and Drink pages for some of our recommendations.