Ipswich Historic Lettering: Woottons sign Camden Road

The slightly smaller and central 'FOR' acts as a fulcrum for 'CURE' and 'CORNS' to really emphasise the function of the product – presumably an ointment with which to annoint those painful podiatric excrescences. The somewhat pleading 'TRY' suggests that this was a new preparation when the sign was painted. For a note about 'Woottons' see point 5 below.

Clearly the sign was a considerable eye-catcher for those walking northwards up the residential street that is Camden Road towards Foxhall Chippy and the Foxhall Road junction with The Heathlands public house (formerly The Asylum Hotel – as shown on our California page – and now a small supermarket) across the road. However, this advertisement poses all sorts of questions:-

1. Why site this sign on a small, quiet, residential road and not on Foxhall Road where it would be seen by far more people?
2. Do the residents of Camden Road suffer more from corns on their feet than others in Ipswich?
3. Why are the characters so big? Camden Road runs south for a about half a mile from Foxhall Road to be truncated by the Ipswich to Felixstowe railway line, turning left into the short Exeter Road, then northwards again up Dover Road. It therefore isn't a road which a great many passers-by would use and, in doing so, would read the sign.
4. How long was the sign visible before the next-door detached house was built, obscuring the sign from view? The plaque on the terrace reads:

‘CLENYU
COTTAGES
1882[?]’

so the advertisement was painted after that date, presumably with a payment to the residents from Woottons – or was the first resident Mr Wootton himself? The residential developments during the Victorian and Edwardian periods tended to be rather piecemeal in nature; houses or groups of houses, being erected by different landowners/builders at different dates. Infilling of plots followed and this is probably what happened to the sign in Camden Road.

5. We wonder if there is any relation to Woottons (it's the same spelling) in Tavern Street? The shop was once Woottons hair-dressers but, judging by the readable lettering above the old shop, it dealt in products and services revolving around the body. Perhaps they produced their own patent medicines, including a cure for corns

[UPDATE 15.1.2024: a gentleman in the audience at one of Borin's talks in January 2024 posited the dea that Camden Road was a major thoroughfare for foot traffic from the Derby Road railway station; therefore many eyes would have seen the advertisement. When we looked at the current and earlier maps of the area, this didn't appear to be the case. For a foot passenger walking from the station, a sharp turn off Derby Road back on Stanley Avenue almost parallel with the railway line would take them to the southern end of Orwell Road. The land to the east of this was the industrial site for Bull Motors and Celestion Audio. We know that there was a market garden on the land to the south of Camden Road and Dover Road. Moreover, there was a branch freght line from the main line which looped round to the north to service the foundry/Bull Motors site (see map detail below dated 1937-1961) – this would cut off public access. We can't find any evidence of a footpath giving access to Camden Road from Stanley Avenue, so we cannot see it as a likely route. If you know better contact us.]
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Woottons sign map

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Woottons sign map

Wootton's Remarkable Cure For Corns
[UPDATE 20.4.2021: 'Just read your interesting article on Wootton’s the hair salon and I notice the below question was asked re. The Cure for Corns and whether there was a link. The below pot lid confirms it was retailed by Wootton’s. Simon Dyer.'] Many thanks to Simon for sending this fascinating piece of cross-fertilising promotion on a ceramic pot lid. Not only the extensive extolling of the virtues of their Macassar Pomade: "will effectually remove dandriff (sic)", but also, around the perimiter:

'SOLE PROPRIETOR OF WOOTTON'S REMARKABLE CURE FOR CORNS'

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Woottons ceramic pot

Image courtesy Simon Dyer

Note also the nearby lost trade sign painted on the side wall of a house on the corner of Foxhall Road and Orwell Road.

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