Architectural features
This section contains lettering examples from the
fabric of buildings.
The
carved or moulded lettering on shop, house 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.
Ipswich Ragged
Schools in Waterworks
Street
and Bond Street are a sobering reminder of the hardships and
philanthropies
of the past.
Smart Street
School 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 are here.
Ipswich
High School on Westerfield Road.
Old hospitals: the Angleses Road Pathology
entrance, Victoria Wing, War Memorial Wing as well as reminders of
Bartlet and Foxhall Hospitals.
Ipswich Museum displays its date of building
and
the Schools of Art and Science.
County Hall Once the home of the East
Suffolk County Council in St Helens Street.
St Helens
Street has several examples
of lettering built into structures. We celebrate 'Tramway Place 1882'
with a short history of the Ipswich Corporation Tramways.
Belle Vue Road:
a tiny detail is part
of a house name in the capital of a brick pillar; plus examples from
Felixstowe
Road, Crabbe Street, Freehold Road, Cauldwell Hall Road and Norwich
Road.
Roundwood
Road and its big '1926'.
The
Wrestlers in Westerfield Road boasts the
date '1667'.
Ruskin House: a butchered house sign on the former post office, also the
built-in ceramic sign 'The Blooming Fuchsia'.
Morpeth
House and the astonishing story of the
Whitfield King stamp business.
14
North Gate: house lettering of a circular
kind from Upper Brook Street, Pitcairn Road and Crown Street.
E. Brand and
Sons
in Tacket Street, Ewer's Grey-Green Coaches and
Phillips
& Piper in St Margaret's Street are here, too.
Fred
Smith & Co. building in Princes Street: one of
the
architectural trade lettering gems in Ipswich.
Lower Brook Street
leads to Price, the
bootmaker,
The Victoria Nursing Institute and in Rose Lane 'D.B 1862'.
Bethesda Church, the nearby Public Library, plus the Regent Theatre.
The Co-operative Society
have many properties in
the town and provide some interesting architectural lettering features.
Lloyds Avenue reaches right up to Electric
House.
Cornhill. Several excellent examples of
architectural lettering can be seen in this
vicinity. This page shows the original
Post Office and Mannings public house.
Cornhill2
takes us round behind the Corn Exchange:
the original Police Station, the bank, Exchange Chambers and the Swan
Inn.
The Crown
& Anchor Hotel in
Westgate
Street nearby is a gothic palace of decoration and lettering.
Princes Street has some nice examples of
lettering
in 'the banking and insurance quarter' of the town.
Christchurch
Mansion: improving Latin mottos abound. In the
park: a drinking
fountain and comemorative oak tree plaque.
Bourne
Park: the Ransomes war memorial and gates.
Chantry
Park: a glimpse of
its history
Tooley's
Almshouses
and Smart's
Almshouses
in Foundation Street bear impressive dedication plaques.
Stoke Hall in Stoke Street.
Fore Street Baths
in Fore Street.
East Suffolk
Militia Depot boundary
stones on the walls of Ipswich School, Ivry Street.
[Our '1900' background comes from the Freehold
Road/Cauldwell Hall
Road
example.]
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©2004 Copyright
throughout the Ipswich
Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission