of the upper end of Benezet Street demonstrates the use of bolt-on and painted signs by a flourishing flour-milling business, Provender Mills and West End Mills owned by A.A. Gibbons. Alfred Alexander Gibbons set up his corn business in Benezet Street in the 1880s, the monochrome photograph having been taken in the 1920s. The far building with its angled Paladian frontage is adorned with three sets of painted lettering: the owner's name, the street name (close to the corner with Bramford Road) and the smaller 'To Order Office' directing customers down the road. Although a fairly narrow street, the proprietor clearly saw the need to stamp his name clearly on the far building which would have been partially visible by those passing on Bramford Road. The colour photograph taken from a similar position in 2001 (the nearest buldings have been reshaped or demolished) shows a typical modern approach to the utilisation of industrial buildings as attractive office and accomodation spaces. The brick-cleaning companies have been in, masonry paint applied, frontages repaired, windows and features altered and all signs have been removed.
1934 advertisement

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Attribution
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The above 1960s photograph of Great Colman Street from the corner of Old Foundry Road by Jim Lewcock shows a rake of buildings on the left long demolished to make way for the Social Security block and Carr Precinct, since superceded by the QD development. At this time, the rather attractive frontage housed Rands & Jeckyl, the tent makers, and the small street about half way down, Little Colman Street (now an access to a ramp leading to upper parking), cut through to Carr Street. The facing building at the end of the road (itself in Northgate Street) has been an Assembly Rooms, the girls' public school (which moved to Westerfield Road, then to Wolverstone Hall), Egertons motor engineering works , Sketchley dry cleaners (we think it's the company name on the building's frontage above), Mortem's stationers and The Chicago Rock Cafe (and other night clubs). The part of the photograph which drew our attention, though, is the end wall of the stores to the upper right. Until recently this was Websters office furnishers, stores and auction rooms and presumably that company was responsible for the obliteration with white paint of the earlier tenants: 'Pickfords Removers and Storers'. The great white panel, just made for advertising lettering, was still there until recently, albeit somewhat flaking and discoloured. As of 2005, the Websters building has been demolished for housing redevelopment.
Photograph courtesy the Ipswich Society Image Archive
[UPDATE 18.12.2017: John Norman passes on this alternative view of the junction showing the full Pickfords sign. The original photograph was by Peter Underwood.]

All the time, we are in danger of losing these historic examples of lettering. Since starting this website in June 2003, we have lost John Good and Sons (G.C.B.) Ltd on the Wet Dock, where the Waterfront Regeneration Scheme has removed several examples. Abrasive brick-cleaning, overpainting with a textured masonry paint, rendering over with cement or rough-cast all threaten to obliterate our history. It is intriguing to contemplate what might eventually happen when such sufaces weather and crumble. If the buildings stand for long enough will they once more yield up their secrets, covered up and (one hopes) protected for so long? There are sites where the enthusiastic use of a red brick paint to cover lettering has followed the contours of the characters rather too slavishly and with the passage of time, only serve to make them readable again. The R. & W. Paul maltings at the rail station end of Princes Street (formerly Hollywood / Kartouche / Zest night club etc.) is a fine example. Our These we have lost page records the Ipswich lettering which is no more.

We have tended to shun signs and characters which are fixed to walls and favour those painted onto them. However, there are road and street signs (which carry their own unique history as illustrated on our Street name derivations page) and other exceptions where they carry the weight of the past. We have a limited selection of eccelesiastical lettering as the many churches in the town have grave stones and memorials, as well as architectural lettering which are all strictly speaking 'public' and which are a subject in themselves.

The original 'gif ' images on this site sometimes lack definition so since 2005 we have replaced most with 'jpeg' files. We have tried to provide close-ups and enhanced images where it is useful to the browser.

[UPDATE 25.10.04: Borin Van Loon gave a talk on this website project to the annual Recorders' Day in October, 2004 organised by Suffolk Local History Council which exists to encourage, promote and assist the study and research of local history in the county of Suffolk. We hope for much feedback from this source, so that we can fill in many of the gaps on the site. They proved a receptive, knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience; it was good to share some of the images and the thinking behind the website with them.]
[UPDATE 15.11.06: We have ditched the Guestbook from the Homepage due to endless spamming. Also citations to published books in the text have been gathered together in a Reading List.]
[UPDATE 17.9.09: A major change! The imminent demise of our web host, Geocities, has led us to sign up for a paid service and get ourselves a domain name - http://ipswich-lettering.org/. This has led to an overhaul of all pages and the bringing into the site the pages which use to be on a separate Geocities site covering vestigial lettering and examples from outside Ipswich. All links within the site are now being checked and we can then start on the back-log of material we've accumulated in the last year or so.]