Harwich
The Electric
Palace, King's Quay St
Take a
ferry over the Stour estuary from Shotley Quay
and you find yourself in Old Harwich. Kings Quay St is a short step
away
and behold: a delightful pocket-sized kinema for the showing of those
awful talkies which will never catch on...
2006 image
The decorative facade has been considerably enhanced since 2006
bythe picking out of raised details in blue-grey and the gilding of the
capitals:
'ELECTRIC
PALACE'
2015 images
The central ticket booth is flanked by two entrances:
The Harwich Society information plaque says it all.
The Electric
Palace cinema, Harwich, is
one of the
oldest purpose-built cinemas to survive complete with its silent
screen, original projection room and ornamental frontage still intact.
Other interesting features include an open plan entrance lobby complete
with paybox, and a small stage plus dressing rooms although the latter
are now unusable. There is also a former gas powered generator engine
with a 7 foot fly wheel situated in the basement. The cinema was built
in 18 weeks at a cost of £1,500 and opened on Wednesday,
November
29th, 1911, the first film being The Battle of Trafalgar and The Death
of Nelson. The creator of the Palace was Charles Thurston, a travelling
showman well known in East Anglia, and the architect was Harold Hooper,
a dynamic young man of 26 years who demonstrated his imaginative flair
with this his first major building. The cinema closed in 1956 after 45
years interrupted only by the 1953 floods and was listed as a building
of sociological interest in September 1972 and is now a Grade II*
listed building. It re-opened in 1981 and now runs as a community
cinema showing films every weekend.
18-18a Kings Quay Street
2015
images
The half-circle at first floor level bears the lettering:
‘WELLINGTON’
in white, drop-shadow capitals.
The period view above shows it to be a public house with, above
the
front ground floor windows at left, 'Cobbold Beers' and at right:
'Wines & Spirits'. The Grade II Listing text mentions a date of
1798. The public house is built in red, Flemish-bond brickwork with
Gault brick dressings. The front has a plain parapet and an off-centre
column of the facade projects slightly to house the old main doorway
and bricked-up first storey window recess, both with painted
semicircular arches on impost blocks. After a chequered career during
which part of the pub was used as a music hall, Cobbold's (the brewery originated in
Harwich, of course) bought it in 1907.
18 Church Street
2015 images
‘1698’
in a roundel, with relief details picked
out in black. This address was, in 2015, occupied by The Book Annex:
New Academic Books.
Church Street, Guildhall
2015 images
The inscribed panel reads: ‘This Guildhall
was restored by Harwich Town Council, who succeeded The Harwich Borough
Council (1604-1974) on April 1st 1974. Restoration commenced in August
1975 and was completed in April 1977.’
and...
‘THIS GUILDHALL WAS BUILT IN 1769 ON THE SITE OF “THE BEAR” WHERE THE
COUNCIL HAD MET SINCE 1673 ON REMOVING FROM ST. AUGUSTINE’S GATE’
[Erected by The Harwich Society’]
The royal coat of arms above bears the usual inscriptions: 'Honi Soit
Qui Mal Y Pense' and 'Dieu Et Mon Droit'.
64 Church Street The Three Cups (former pub)
2015 images
The Three Cups Hotel was situated next door
to the Parish Church of St. Nicholas in Church Street, People often
asked Why the Three Cups? It is said that the Three Cups are said to
have been the arms of the Cavendish family – one of whom, Sir Thomas
Cavendish (1557-1592) was the terror of the Spaniards, and in his
little ship, the Desire of
Harwich, he made a successful voyage round the world – a superb feat of
courage, skill, and endurance in those days. Naturally the town desired
to honour such a worthy son. Originally it was an L-shaped, early 16th
century building with another wing added in the 17th century and later
re-fronted. The building had many improvements including a Georgian
Facade and an archway at the rear. On the first floor level there was a
late Tudor plaster ceiling and a staircase with twisted balusters
of c.1700. The structure was remodelled in 1949, when the top
storey and archway at the rear was removed. Many famous people have
enjoyed hospitality at this ancient establishment.
The Alma Inn, 25 Kings Head
Street
Not far from the cinema and the ferry is this hostelry
at 25 Kings Head
Street with a huge blue painted cartouche on the side wall (it
originally contained much larger text, blacl letters on white) with the
sign:
'THE
ALMA
INN
-
TRADITIONAL ALES
-
BEER GARDEN'
2006 image 
The Alma Inn was once a merchant’s house owned by Captain
Twitt, a relative of Thomas Twytt, a merchant brewer of Harwich in
1599. the Alma traded as an alehouse around 1871 as The Alma Dining
Rooms and was opened by Charles Cunningham, a brewer of Ipswich. It
then became a Tolly Cobbold house, and the tenant from 1932 until 1953,
was William Chambers. Upon his retirement the tenancy was taken up by
his son Arthur who ran it until 1987. It changed names to the Alma at
the turn of the century. How the Alma pub got its name
is not known, an Alma is actually
an Egyptian dancing girl, and there is no obvious link between the land
of the pharaohs and King’s Head street pub. It is more likely to be
named after the Battle of the Alma in the mid-19th century. After
the closure of the Tolly Cobbold Brewery
the Alma was taken over by Pubmaster, who in turn were bought by Punch
Taverns in 2004. This large, dark blue cartouche features traditional,
centred pub capital letters. In 2006 it is clear that the tenants or
owners have had to remove a large amout of ivy from this side wall, the
aerial roots leaving their mark on the surface.
Smith fruiterers, 21 Market Street
And further
into the town, one of our favourites at 21 Market Street, Harwich:
'Smith'
By
the look of the fine ceramic panel to the right of the shop door
depicting a gentleman atop a ladder resting against the bough of a
tree, while a fair maiden receives the fruits of his labours in a
basket below, Mr Smith once sold fruit and vegetables from these
premises. Now a bookshop, the entrance still boasts this excellent
piece of mosaic lettering on the trapezoidal doorstep. Replete with
colourful fleur-de-lis in the corners, contiguous borders and a capital
letter resembling a treble clef - perhaps Mrs Smith had a sweet voice
and sang to the customers queuing for their calabrese and celeriac. 10
out of 10 for panache and preservation. These photographs date from
2006.
2006 images
[This information comes from the Harwich Old Books
website (see Links).
The shop is spread over three rooms on the ground floor of a historic,
Grade II-listed building in the town's conservation area. The back
rooms retain the late-medieval flavour of the original timber-framed
building (ask to be shown the surviving carvings!), while the
atmosphere in the Victorian front of the shop is quite different - this
is a light-filled area, probably added in the 1880s, which served as a
butcher's, greengrocer's and antique shop before we moved in. A period
mural outside the front door and the elegant windows are highlights of
this stage in the building's evolution. Other unusual features of the
building include the 'rainback', a kind of well that was used to
collect rainwater before the piped supply came to Harwich.] For more
tiled doorsteps: 'Hales Chemist'
Ipswich, 'Roll', Wells-Next-The-Sea,
'E.Smith', Woodbridge and Ann Williams'
fine collection (see Links).
Adjacent to
the public library, Kingsway
Walking
along the Old Harwich Marine Parade past the
historic Low Lighthouse, the path rises up the cliff until one reaches
a statue of Queen Victoria. Turn left down Kingsway and at a
refurbished frontage on the right, look back at the right-angled brick
wall (shown below). Yes, it's been cleaned almost to extinction, but
you can just make out in huge capitals the words:
'IRONMONGER
SPORTS[?] DEALER'
This doesn't quite ring true as a retail opportunity.
We assume that
the trader's name was above this in the inverted 'V' of the gable. It
also suggests that the red brick structure to the left, which abuts the
wall and obscures one or more letters, post-dates the signed
wall.
Old Co-op store, corner of Hordle
Road and Kingsway
A little
further down Kingsway on the opposite side
is a relief panel with a gnomic motto ('Each
for
all & all for each' it
definitely isn't):
2002 image
'1902
LABOR - & - WAIT
LIBERTY - UNITY - CHARITY'
Although not readable in the photograph, the mottos
which appear below
the date (shown in decorative numerals curving round the top of the
panel) on two heraldic banners are certainly there above the Old
Harwich/Dovercourt branch of the Co-op. These last two photographs were
taken in 2002. See our Colchester page
for an explanation of this unusual Co-op motto. And our Ipswich Co-op page for several similar lettering
examples.