John Good And... Sons (GCB) Ltd
[British Oil & ... Cake Mills]
Once a well-recognised feature of the Wet Dock in
Ipswich, this wharf has lost its famous lettering and became a hotel in
2003. Dating back to the 1800s, the redbrick
building in
which the hotel is set was once a merchant's warehouse and many
original features such as the arched windows, and iron columns and
beams have been retained.
The unbridled use of reddish-brown paint suggests that
this lettering replaces
older signs, particularly the bracket shaped areas around the word
'Sons
(GCB) Ltd'.
John Good & Sons Limited
In the year 1813 a young boy of 11 left his Scarborough home and
'signed
on' the sailing brig "British Volunteer" to begin a life-time's
association with the sea and shipping. Over the next 20 years John Good
continued his seagoing experience on vessels trading to the Baltic,
White
Sea and Mediterranean, gaining his Master's Certificate.
In 1833 he set up an office in Hull to found the company John Good
&
Co., as Ship Chandlers, Agents and Brokers, utilising the connections
he
had built up mainly with the Baltic and Finnish ship owners. After his
retirement
in 1864 his two sons continued to run the company, which had also
expanded
into ship owning. The Company's first regular liner agency was obtained
in 1883 for Finland Steamship Company's new cargo and passenger
services
between Finland and Hull. This agency continued for over 100 years.
The company has continued to expand, concentrating on general agencies,
ship agencies, and liner agencies, opening offices throughout the
United
Kingdom including Felixstowe and the Immingham ports. Today John Good
Shipping
provides a total transportation service and is one of the largest
independent
ship agency companies in the United Kingdom, still family owned and
run.
[current Chair: John Good according to their website www.johngood.co.uk]
It was several years later, on re-examining the
photographic prints of this frontage, that we made out the light
coloured capital letters bleeding through the russet painted strip
below:
'BRITISH OIL &... CAKE
MILLS'
either side of the central
teagle doors. It's still readable today, becoming visible
with time and weather. See the enhanced portion of the image below:
Sadly, all of this lettering has now been expunged (but
as
mentioned above it's gradually reappearing), as part of the conversion
of
the wharf to an hotel. However, 'SALTHOUSE HARBOUR HOTEL' (below:
painted on an added brick-coloured strip on the upper part of the
building facing the Wet Dock)
on the front and side walls was at, least, of the same character as the
John
Good lettering. The rather ugly, grey, upper portion has been added,
but
on the positive side the building is, once again, in use as part of the
waterfront
regeneration. The building of a modern extension on the Neptune
Quay side of this building virtually doubled the size of the hotel.
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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