Street Signs

The use of cast or printed signs for street names is a relatively recent development; streets have changed their names or have not been signed in any way in centuries past. This is probably due to the fact that anyone who lived in the town would know the whereabouts of The Shambles (which once stood on the site of the Post Office building on Cornhill) or Buttermaket (a name surviving to the present day) and any visitor would be able to ask the way.

Bridge Street (Stoke Bridge)

Parliament Road also Upper Orwell Courts and Northgate Street

Lancaster Road also Charles Court in Union Street.

Bishops Hill

Mile End (Coleman Buildings)

Mileposts

King Street

Lloyds Avenue and Electric House

Old Cattle Market and behind St Stephen's church.

Railway bridges

'IBH'  the hidden lettering 'ITFC'

Street names (derivations)
Slavery Abolitionists commemorated in Ipswich street names
Blue plaques put up to the memory of the rich, the famous and the interesting

The history of street naming and signing is an area of study all its own. We recommend the book 'The Way We Went: Streets in 19th Century Ipswich' by Muriel Clegg, see Reading List.

[Our background is taken from one of the prominent cast mileposts on Woodbridge Road.]

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©2004 Copyright throughout the Ipswich Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
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