Architectural features
This section contains lettering examples from the
fabric of buildings.
The
carved or moulded lettering on shops, houses and other buildings
constitute
one of the most useful indicators for the local historian. A habit
particularly
prevalent during the Victorian era, a period when house building in the
town increased prodigiously, these plaques and names often included a
date.
The selection of examples here show lettering and numerals
intrinsically
part of the material of the building, rather than applied or attached
to
it. This gallery includes architectural trade and commercial features.
Almshouses
Tooley's
Almshouses
and Smart's
Almshouses
in Foundation Street bear impressive dedication plaques.
More
Almshouses:
Nethaniah Home for the Aged, Luther Road, Mrs Smiths' Almshouses, Elm
Street, Cranfield Court, Wm. Paul Tenement Trust (also a page about Paul's malting).
Alston Road house name/date
plaques and a connection to Rosehill
Library.
The
Ancient House: in Buttermarket, a remarkable
survivor.
Atlas
House – although barely lettered, this handsome former shoe factory
deserves inclusion here.
Baden-Powell Cottages in Bramford
Lane boast an unusual sculptural bust; also examples from Norfolk Road
and Bramford Lane.
Barracks
Artillery
Barracks: Barrack Lane
East Suffolk
Militia Depot boundary
stones on the walls of Ipswich School, Ivry Street.
Parade Field Terrace: traces of
the militia barracks on Albion Hill.
Belle
Vue Road:
part
of a house name in the capital of a pillar; the asylum which preceded
the road.
Bethesda Church, the nearby Public Library, plus the Regent Theatre.
Bolton Lane
has three dated buildings and the mysterious Bolton Lane Social Club
& Institute Ltd.
Broom Hill
Road displays a variety of house lettering for such a
relatively short residential road, including F.L.S.
plaques.
Bramford Road
house names, many of them dated.
Bridgeward
Club and St Peter's Vicarage off Austin Street, Over Stoke.
The
Captain's Houses in Grimwade Street.
Castle Hill
Community Centre features 'AD 1893' monograms.
Cauldwell
Hall Road: a plethora of house name/date plaques.
Cavendish
Street: a sub-plethora of house
name/date plaques.
Cemetery
including the Temple of Remembrance, the Crematorium coat of arms and
the Field of Honour.
Cenotaph
in Christchurch Park.
Christchurch
Mansion and Park: see below under
'Parks'.
Coats of arms and
crests on buildings, particularly that of Ipswich Borough.
College Street:
1-5, Burton Son & Saunders offices and their relationship to the
Wolsey Gate; also No. 4 with its dated bressumer.
The Co-operative Society
have many properties in
the town and provide some interesting architectural lettering features.
Cornhill.
Several excellent examples of
architectural lettering can be seen in this
vicinity. This page shows the original
Post Office and Mannings public house. Also a growing collection of
Footmans/Debenhams store ephemera.
Cornhill2
takes us round behind (and inside) the Corn
Exchange:
the original Police Station, the bank, Exchange Chambers and the Swan
Inn.
County
Hall Once the home of the East
Suffolk County Council in St Helens Street with associated lettering in
Grimwade Street and Rope Walk.
The Crown
& Anchor Hotel in
Westgate
Street nearby is a gothic palace of decoration and lettering; also on
this page, examples from Westgate Street.
Curson Lodge,
St Nicholas Street and The Wolsey Gate,
College Street (with a page about Wolsey's College).
E.
Brand and
Sons
in Tacket Street, Ewer's Grey-Green Coaches and
Phillips
& Piper in St Margarets Street are here, too.
Felixstowe
Road FLS Garden farms.
Fore
Street: '1620' bressumer beam and The Steam Packet Hotel.
Fore
Street Baths
in Fore Street.
Fred
Smith & Co. building in Princes Street:
one of
the
architectural trade lettering gems in Ipswich.
Great
White Horse interior photographs from 2016.
Hope House in
Foxhall Road has an array of memorial slabs.
Hospitals
Old hospitals: the
Anglesea Road Pathology
entrance, Victoria Wing, War Memorial Wing as well as reminders of
Bartlet and Foxhall Hospitals. Now with Ipswich Sanatorium 1912
EADT Souvenir (PDF download).
The
ICA International Community Centre
(RIP).
Ipswich Martyrs
memorial in Christchurch Park.
Kossuth
Cottage in
Freehold
Road.
Lloyds Avenue
reaches right up to the former Odeon and
Electric
House.
Lower
Brook Street
leads to Price, the
bootmaker,
The Victoria Nursing Institute and in Rose Lane 'D.B 1862'.
The Maharani
Restaurant in Norwich Road had a dated bressumer beam.
Marlborough
Road is a riot of named houses.
Morpeth
House and the astonishing story of the
Whitfield King stamp business.
Museums
Ipswich Museum
displays its date of building
and
the Schools of Art and Science. Also a page on the Museum's lettered contents.
Ipswich Transport
Museum has some rescued examples of
street name plates and trade signs.
Museum
Street: decorative and dated office buildings.
Norfolk
House, Seymour Road/Rectory Road.
14
North Gate: house lettering of a circular
kind from Upper Brook Street, Pitcairn Road and Crown Street.
Odeon / Hope
Church: the ghost of its former role as a multiplex cinema
can still be seen on this Art Deco-style building on Woodbridge Road/St
Helens Street.
Palmerston
Road: Kerrison Villa and Home Cottage.
Parks
Alexandra
Park: the Byles Memorial fountain, lower gates and Kings
Avenue named houses.
Bourne
Park: the Ransomes & Rapier war
memorial and
gates (also R&R engineering products), the Stokes Gun; railway
arch, Bourne Bridge, The Ostrich. Also material and images on the
disappeared Stoke
Park mansion and parkland.
Chantry
Park: a
glimpse of
its history.
Christchurch Park: our finest
public park, which includes Christchurch Mansion. The Ipswich Martyrs memorial and the Cenotaph have their own pages, as
do the Withypolls memorials slab
and Christchurch timeline.
Gippeswyk
Park: another Felix Cobbold bequest to the town.
Holywells
Park: spruced up in 2015.
Landseer
Park
Racecourse Recreation Ground ,
now known as 'Murray Park'.
The
People's Hall ('Stoke Hall') in Stoke Street.
Princes Street
has some nice examples of
lettering
in 'the banking and insurance quarter' of the town.
Pumping
station in West End Road, dated in the brickwork.
Railings and gates outside
houses, some of them lettered.
Rain water
hoppers and weather vanes are sometimes used to record
building dates.
Rosehill
area house name plaques.
Rosehill
Library case study and Margaret
Hancock's research into the F.L.S. Rosehill Estate
Roundwood
Road and other dated buildings: the
big '1926'; and a selection of other buildings bearing
dates.
Ruskin House:
a butchered house sign on the former post
office, also
the
built-in ceramic sign 'The Blooming Fuchsia'.
Sailors Rest
in St Peters Street, Cutler Street and the now-demolished Turret Green
Baptist Chapel.
Schools
Bramford
School – outside Ipswich boundaries, but a near neighbour.
Ipswich
High School on Westerfield Road.
Ipswich Ragged
Schools in Waterworks
Street
and Bond Street are a sobering reminder of the hardships and
philanthropies
of the past; also the story of 'The Merchant House' transplanted to
Silent Street.
Smart Street
School which is actually 'SHIRE HALL
SCHOOLS', including the vanished Shire Hall and Pleasant Row
between Foundation
Street
and Lower Orwell
Street.
More Schools:
Bramford Road School,
Argyle
Street School, Clifford Road School, Springfield Junior School and
Ranelagh Road School, the lost Grey Coat Boys' School, Elm Street
School and Spring Road School are here.
St Helens
Street has several examples
of lettering built into structures. We celebrate 'Tramway Place 1882'
and related street furniture with a short history of the Ipswich
Corporation Tramways.
St Jude's
Brewery: 18th century dated building and environs.
Social Settlement: although
demolished before the Queen's visit in July 1961, this important Fore
Street building, repleat with lettering, deserves to be commemorated.
Soane
Street has symbols on The Old Pack Horse Inn and The Freemason's
Hall.
Stoke
Hall Road off
Belstead Road, or what remains of the Hall; a hidden bonus: the
extensive tunnels beneath it.
Temple of Remembrance off
Cemetery Road: a domed 1935 building; Field of Honour; Cemetery Road
gate-posts with coats of arms.
Sun Inn
in St Stephens Lane: a beautiful restoration of a medieval building.
Tolly
Cobbold: 'Cliff Cottage'.
Tolly
Cobbold Cliff Quay Brewery: 'The Cliff'.
Uncle
Tom's Cabin in Vernon Street has its name and 'S&P Ltd'
as well as frosted lettered pub windows.
University
of Suffolk has a wall of calligraphy.
Wherstead
red bricks, their use in local house-building and notes on
local brickyards.
The
Wrestlers in Westerfield Road boasts
the
date '1667'.
See also Lost
Ipswich trade signs (with
sections on 'Before & after the Willis building' and Thomas
Seckford's 'Great Place' in Westgate Street)...
and Collage
of lost signs.
Related pages:
Named buildings list;
Named (and sometimes dated) buildings
examples
Dated buildings list; Dated buildings
examples; Dated
rain-hoppers/weather vanes; Railings and
gates;
Origins of street names
in Ipswich; Streets named after slavery
abolitionists
Street index;
Street nameplates;
Boundary markers
Ipswich
Tomorrow, Greyfriars 1960s
Rampart and Town gates
Historic maps of Ipswich
Timeline: historical eras,
events and monarchs
Monasteries
Blue plaques
Freehold Land Society
Lettered
castings
Ipswich coat of arms
Pubs & Off licences
Brickyards; Ropewalks in Ipswich
Water in Ipswich
Listed buildings in Ipswich
Windmills
in the Borough of Ipswich
[Our 'May Villas 1893' background comes from the Belle Vue Road page.]
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Historic Lettering
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throughout the Ipswich
Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
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