The Globe Public House
St George's Street north of the centre of Ipswich has a long history
with connections to the Ipswich martyrs. The street runs gently uphill
from where St Matthew's Street runs into Crown Street, with the top
joining Fonnereau Road near the Greyhound public house. The conversion
(by Ipswich Bourough Council) of the former Salem Chapel about half way
down St Georges Street into the New Wolsey Studio (theatre space)
revealed a baptism pool which survives below the present day flooring.
The building at the bottom of the street which many will recognise is
the former Globe public house.
Despite many years of neglect, then an excellent
restoration by the Ipswich Building Preservation Trust (see Links), this building still bears a cement
cartouche on its frontage where either the recessed letters have been
filled
in with a compound, or raised lettering has been chipped away and the
surface painted with masonry paint.
Fortunately for us the job wasn't done all that well and in a raking
autumn light in 2009 with the sun over the site of the Civic Centre we
noticed that there are readable characters - or their shadows:
'COBBOLD'S
ALES
&
SPIRITS'
The word 'Cobbold's' curves over the top and there's
definitely a tapered underline below the word 'Cobbold's' and the final
'Spirits'. The words 'Ales ..
&' are very difficult to make out but the example from nearby
Hadleigh (below) gives us confidence that this is the correct reading
the on The Globe.
The Suffolk CAMRA website (see Links) gives
this information:
"opened 1579 or earlier
closed 1958 (21 Sept)
last owner: Cobbold
24-26 St George's St, IP1
grid reference: TM 160 448
listed building grade: II
Also listed in Globe Lane (in 1844 + 1871).
The building is owned by the Ipswich Building Preservation Trust, who
have some interesting photographs on their website." Their website (see
Links) does indeed have some fine photographs
of the exterior and interior before and after restoration with
additional information. The restored Globe building has been used in
recent times as a hairdressers, office and private residence. Below
left: a period photograph of The Globe as a public house with lettering
picked out in paint and clearly visible. This suggests that the
original characters were originally standing out from the cartouche in
relief.
While researching The Globe's vestigial pub lettering
we discovered the informative Brewery History Society website (see Links) which shows another example of similar
lettering in High Street, Hadleigh, formerly the Shoulder of
Mutton public house, now a residence. The typical raised lettering on
the roughcast frontage:
'COBBOLD'S
ALES & SPIRITS'
Thomas Cobbold founded his Harwich Brewery in 1723.
This was 134 years before it merged with the Tollemache Breweries Ltd
to become 'Tolly Cobbold' by which time it was brewing beers on Cliff
Quay. Cobbold's made the move from Harwich to Ipswich to take advantage
of the natural spring waters which fed the pools in the Cobbold family
parkland, now Holywells Park. The brewery itself has a fascinating
history including a working steam engine used to pump the waters to the
top of the brewery building.
See Norwich Road ('The Emperor'), off licences and Needham Market for more examples of
Tolly Cobbold lettering.
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throughout the Ipswich
Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission
