The Mill
(OK,
it's not historic... but you can't ignore it)
A major feature of the Waterfront Regeneration Scheme
in Ipswich (better known to us as the Wet Dock) is the area of
Cranfield's Flour Mill. The 23 storey block
which now occupies the site has become a new 'eyecatcher' from all over
the town and its environs. Not to mention the skeletal structure next
door! Here are some photographs of the
building from a variety of viewpoints.
The lettering here must be one of the biggest fonts on
this website. An added 21st Century touch is that it reads vertically
on this very vertical building and at night, as well as single large
spotlights shining vertically on the various faces, the characters
themselves are underlit.
The Mill rises like a rocket ship: The view from just
south of the Buttermarket Shopping Centre and looking across Dog's Head
Street (home of the 'Edme
Bakery' lettering) into Turret Lane and the Old Cattle market Bus
Station. The former Atfield & Daughter shop, now called Angle (but
known to the historic buildings enthusiast as 'The
Sun Inn') is to the
left, the edge of bar/restaurant is to the right. Behind is St Stephens Church.
The Mill is framed between the jaws of Lower Brook
Street (just outside The
Suffolk Victoria Nursing Institute), one of the most ancient
thoroughfares in the town.
A bit further down and The Mill soars above everything.
Another example of recent lettering which has found its way onto this
website can be found in St Helens Street.
Above: St Peter's Church on an April
evening in 2011 and behind it
soars The Mill with its lettering underlit, close-up on the right.
Ironically, perhaps, The Mill (still largely
empty in 2012) towers high above a stump of the
original 'CRANFIELDS FLOUR MILL' which stands
opposite St Mary-At-Quay Church. Perhaps it has been left in a
semi-derelict condition to celebrate the desultory state in which the
dockside follies were left when the Irish banks – which
were funding much of the Waterfront Generation, apparently
– went into meltdown in 2008. Good times. Cheers.
A very big employer in the town, Cranfield's was in operation from the
1880s to about 1999. The former flour mill was largely demolished and
the first foundations for the £70 million site were laid in June
2007. The site is now home to The Mill, the tallest building in
Suffolk, described somewhat questionably by The East of England
Development Agency as 'a cultural and architectural beacon for the
town'. The Mill includes the new £7.9 million Jerwood DanceHouse
which was supported with a further £1million of funding from
EEDA. It provides the first custom-built dance facility in the East of
England and a headquarters for dance agency DanceEast. The DanceHouse
was officially opened on 30 October 2009.
The skeletal concrete structure visible to the left of the image below
remains a steadily decaying testimony to 'property development' hubris.
Locals have taken to call it 'The Winerack'. Composed of
internal-quality concrete which is not designed to withstand extreme
weather conditions (unlike exterior concrete) it has become clear that
this whole construction will require demolition if anyone scrapes
together the money to attempt to complete the dockside 'regeneration'
on this part of the Wet Dock. Some cynics opine that it was better,
more honest, when the brutalist maltings and mill silos lined the Wet
Dock and before the jetties and millionaires' boats obliterated the
water.
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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
