Roundels!
One of the grandest address signs in the town can be
found at 14 Northgate
Street, although the beribboned floral ellipse, suitably coloured,
boasts:
'14, NORTH GATE' on the first storey of this fine 17th century (?)
building.
It stands a few hundred yards from the Public
Library, the Halberd and the Northgate Street sign: close to the site of
the
actual
North Gate into the old town.
Further down the road towards the Wet
Dock, in Upper Brook Street below the Symonds
sign, we see another round relief design with lettering from another
era.
Not a house sign, nor a trade sign: 'CTC' in copper-plate letters, set
against
an old fashioned spoked wheel with three white wings circling the hub
in
a clockwise direction. Any cyclist will probably know that this stands
for
the Cycling Touring Club, pressure group and organiser of cycle outings
and tours for the enthusiast. They were clearly connected to this shop
in
the past, the evidence of an impressive insignia on the first storey of
what was Mick MacNeil Sports shop (now Age Concern charity shop)
proclaims this.
[Update 20.10.10: Ken Nichols
emails: "(The sign) was placed on this building in about 1887 as a sign
that the Coach and Horses inn which stood here until the 1970's ... and
would tell riders that the Inn was a good place to stay (a fore runner
of A.A star signs now). Inns and Hotels would hope to have these signs
outside their premises ... back in the 1980s (I think) when the Coach
& Horses was being changed into shops my wife and I pointed out to
the Council that the sign had been there for over 100 years. They were
pleased to hear , and promised it would be carefully taken down and
returned to the building when finished."]
[Update 5.2.10: Ann Williams'
fine web site (See Links) includes a
collection of CTC sign images from around the country. She suggested
that we get in touch with the Cycling Touring Club, who use some of her
images, as they had an old sighting of the Ipswich sign, but no
image. They are now using our images on their site and we are happy to
exchange Links with them. On walking past the
site yesterday, we noticed that the whole wall has been covered in
creamwash, so that the two-tone shield emblem is now monochrome. Sad.]
Another couple of examples of CTC signs in Dent, North
Yorkshire and at Barnards Far, Essex.
The photograph above from the 1960s shows the Coach
& Horses towards the end of its existence, although the CTC sign
isn't visible here. The building dates from the 16th century as a
private dwelling which was adapted for use as an inn at some time in
the 17th or early 18th century. It was refronted in Georgian style
while retaining many features of the original building to the rear.
Aptly named this inn was used as a staging post by coaches travelling
to and from Colchester, London, Bury St Edmunds, Scole, Bungay and
Norwich, also Woodbridge and Halesworth. The Suffolk CAMRA site (see Links, also on that page see our Reading List -
James, T.: 'Ipswich inns, taverns and pubs') provides a list of many of
the landlords of the inn.
Back to the circular house names, Pitcairn Road, like
the island with which
it shares its name is a quirky place. Just off Bramford Road past the
railway
bridge, Pitcairn Road refuses to provide a rat-run for drivers towards
Bramford
Lane by running straight into a T-junction with Eustace Road. By the
time
you get there, you will have passed two fascinating little bungalows
which
back onto the railway embankment:
Above: 'THE LINCS, 1930', a long bungalow with a tiny
frontage and a strange
spelling! Dyslexic golfer or illiterate Lincolnian?
Below: 'THE REST, 1928', a bigger double-fronted bungalow next door,
with
a newer house hard up against it to the left.
But why are they blessed with such disproportionately large name/date
roundels?
Perhaps they celebrate something more than these small buildings...
-
For a really BIG date on a house, try Roundwood Road.
And finally, an oddity which really shouldn't be here.
For several years,
we've been speculating about the official impremateur displayed proudly
high on the rendered wall in the apex of the roof of Primedale Estate
Agents
in Crown Street (on the corner with Neal Street): 'CROWN OFFICE'.
Surely
some royal dispensation related to land registry, stamp duty or Crown
Estates?
And so well preserved after all this time, too ... On enquiry inside
the
estate agency we discovered from the proprietor that, on buying the
building
in the late eighties, Ipswich Borough Council asked him to come up with
a name to distinguish it from Crown House further down the street on
the
same side. This roundel is the result.
Another roundel bearing a large decorative date
exists on the corner of St Helens Street
and Grove Lane.
A very recent dated roundel appears on the
newly-built Co-op in Foxhall Road.
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Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
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