Clocks
Clocks on buildings are a dying breed; some have disappeared
such as
that which was once on Clydesdale House (now in Giles
Circus), although
you can see the marks of the hour indicators on the wall. However, a
new digital display projecting from the Aqua Pharmacy in Duke Street
shows the temperature and the time in turn, similarly the chemist on
the junction of Wherstead Road and Rapier Street.
2018 images
Christchurch Mansion has a
white, octagonal clockface above its
main entrance, facing the Soane Street
gates.
The Church of St Margaret
on St Margarets Green bears a fine,
blue, octagonal clockface above its south porch.
County Hall in St Helens Street,
once a fine, cared-for building
and in 2018 vandalised and neglected with its clock smashed.
The Church of St Clement features
a pierced clockface on the
north face and a more conventional circular face in a stone roundel on
the south face.
The curved former electricity
sub-station built to power the
electric trams, then Mortimers restaurant and most recently The Forge,
meat-eaters' nirvana.
The difficult-to-photograph Holy
Trinity Church in Back Hamlet.
The campanile on the Custom House
has impressive proportions
with clear, well designed clock faces. There appears to be a tiny
information plaque above the east-facing clock.
St Mary-At-Quay has an octagonal
clockface on the south of the
tower and a circular clock, oddly situated next to a right-angle in the
flint wall on the north of the tower.
Price the bootmaker, nowadays
(2018) The Shamrock bar bears a
fine clockface on the Tacket Street elevation.
Not far from The Shamrock is a public clock between the former
Hot Off The Press print shop and the wine bar (names vary). It's not
working.
A small stone shield bearing a crucifix is just below the bell
loft and below is a circular clock in a stone roundel, west side of the
tower of the Church of St Peter.
The multi-level car park between Burrell Road and the tunnel
entrance at Ipswich Station.
Having circumnavigated the whole Royal Mail sorting office site,
we had nearly given up when the public clock (wrong, as it happens) was
found near the postal boxes.
Once, presumably, part of the John Player (formerly Churchman's)
cigarette factory. When occupied by Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
and Ipswich Community Radio (ICRfm), this building was called The
Point. It was also the site of the last horse trough in the town. Might
have been nice if it had been kept for posterity, as in other towns. In
2018 this building is the new home of the Archant local newspapers, as
testified to by the clockface lettering.
The Church of St Mary-at-Elms
in Elm Street has a notable redbrick tower with traces of darker brick
diaper-work. The handsome black, circular clockface with gold hands and
Roman numerals looks quite recent, or recently-restored.
On the junction of the upper section of Portman Road and
Burlington Road is the English Presbyterian Church, now Ipswich
International Church and the Oasis Centre. Its lofty tower and spire
feature a clock face set into its own stone surround quite high above
street level, so easily missed by pedestrians.
Next door to the former Grimwade's shop in Carr Street is H. Samuel the jeweller's
shop which bears the typical shouldered square clockface with roman
numerals – difficult to splay around the centre – projecting over the
street.
The Venetian gothic Town Hall shown above with the Mannings pub
sign in the foreground on Cornhill. The
four-way clock tower is topped by a campanile, spirlet and a shining
Neptune's horse (echoing the Borough coat of arms)
weather vane.
The flamboyant clock on the Tavern Street entrance to The Walk.
The buildings constituting The Walk date to 1938 and were designed by
Leslie Barefoot as celebrated on a Blue plaque.
Festooned with wrought iron, the double-sided circular clock of
the former jewellers, Croydon's, still bears the company name years
after the business disappeared. More on this building on our Tavern Street page.
This 'pushed back' corner building (Upper Brook Street/Tavern
Street) dates from 1928-30 and stands opposite the Great White Horse Hotel. The asymmetrical
octagonal format enables a much more regular use of the Roman numerals
– comapare with the H. Samuel clock above. The Croydon's building is in
the right background.
The Cricketers is one of the renowned 'Tolly
Follies' and the one closest to the town centre. It not only boasts
a four-way clock in the tower, but a nice batsman/wicket-keeper weather
vane (just visible in our clos-up above) installed by Wetherspoons when
they refurbished the building. A similar clock tower is seen on The
Suffolk Punch on Norwich Road. All the Tolly Follies were designed by
architect and illustrator John Shewell Corder who was also responsible
for the Scarborrow shop in Dial Lane.
Car showroom, Barnes of Ipswich
furnishing/haberdashers, Yates Wine Lodge, Wetherspoons Robert Ransome
public house and ... Yates again. For a snowy
1950s view of the building when it was a car showroom, see our Egertons page.
St Mary-Le-Tower Church: the
clock faces on the south and west of the Victorian tower.
The Lodge at the entrance to the Upper Arboretum (shown on our Christchurch Park page) has, until
recently borne a handless clockface bearing the name 'Fisher...
Ipswich'. Now refurbished, the new face bears the name of a former
staff member at the park, 'G.G. Sampson'.
No doubt there are other public clocks further out from the
centre of Ipswich. We have not gone out of our way to
point out which clocks are stopped or set at the wrong time; let's hope
that those responsible for the public clocks will get them running at
the correct time.
See also The timeball that
never was on our Nova Scotia page
for another method of showing the time publicly.
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