Ipswich

By David Kindred

If you walk through Ipswich you become aware of how buildings of all periods jostle each other for space. There are remnants of fine medieval and Tudor dwellings, terraced streets from the 19th century as well as developments from the 20th and 21st centuries. David Kindred's book throws light on how Ipswich has developed since the 1880s when photography outdoors first became practical. He has drawn on a wide range of sources including some photographers whose work was outstanding. Harry Walters, for example, was making high-quality images in the 1890s. Similarly, the curator of the Ipswich museum in the 1930s, Guy Maynard, recorded areas where changes to the town were planned including photographs of the housing around Cox Lane and the Potteries. Amateur photographers have also played their part, capturing the questionable changes of the 1960s. They have photographed the recent transformation of the dock area from a commercial hub to a mainly residential and leisure scene complete with a new university building. The 300-plus photographs chosen and captioned by David Kindred bring to life the past and present of Suffolk's county town, the town on the Orwell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Old Pond Books
• Release date: Oct 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781910456828

Book preview

Historical Titles and Licence Terms

Alehouse – Sold ale, beer and sometimes spirits. Food was sometimes available.

Beerhouse – Originally sold only beer, porter, ale and cider, but not wines and spirits.

Hotel – The term hotel was used in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to describe a better class of inn.

Inn – For centuries these were venues where events, other than providing food and drink, took place. There would have been accommodation and stabling. Rooms were used by travelling salespersons and for meetings. They were also stops for stage coaches and wagons.

Tavern – Until the first quarter of the eighteenth century a tavern mainly sold wine and often food, but there was no accommodation. Later, inns and taverns became much the same.

Public House – The first time this term appeared was in the late seventeenth century, possibly as an abbreviation of public alehouse. A public house sold beer, wines and spirits. Accommodation was not usually available.

The use of many of these terms has become blurred.

The Old Cattle Market in October 1959 with the Blue Coat Boy centre right. The roof of the Post Office sorting office is left centre. The Buttermarket Shopping Centre was built where the sorting office used to be.

Introduction

This book looks at the inns, taverns, beerhouses and public houses which have traded in Ipswich but are now closed. I have divided the work into two sections. The first covers those that have closed since 1919, the majority of which I have been able to illustrate with photographs from my own archive. Many of these public houses will be familiar to Ipswich residents and I hope that they will evoke happy memories of social occasions.

The second section of the book takes a longer view. It records the names, and where possible some additional details and a photograph, of establishments that closed before 1920. Some of these references are very early indeed. For example, the Greyhound, Upper Brook Street, has a record in 1343.

The historical section is preceded by a short article by David Jones, the Keeper of Human History at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. He deals with the history of the coaching inns of Ipswich.

Pub names and locations

The locations of pubs and their names have been difficult to research due to poor records and the variable nature of the trade. Over decades, both the names of businesses and streets – even the building numbers – have changed. A survey from 1689 listed twenty-five inns and taverns in the Ipswich parishes. Most were in the town centre in the parish of St Mary-le-Tower, but there were others in St Margaret’s parish, Wykes Bishop, St Mary-at-the-Quay, St Peter’s parish, St Lawrence and St Nicholas parish.

In 1893 there were 308 licensed premises in the town and that figure fell to 277 just before the First World War. The trade flourished until the 1970s, but in the 1980s many old public houses changed their identities in order to remain fashionable and often took on odd names as a result. Establishments such as the Spotted Cow on Bramford Road became Sloan’s, while the Royal William on London Road became Hoofers. Bars with names like the Toad and Raspberry and the Newt and Cucumber emerged. The idea was to attract a younger trade by providing a nightclub-like atmosphere; there was a pointed effort to move away from the traditional ‘darts and dominoes’ image. Some reverted to their long-established names but, by then, many in the trade had been overshadowed by other forms of entertainment.

To complicate the research process further, often an old public house name would reappear on a brand-new site. For example, there was a General Gordon in Upper Barclay Street that was demolished in the 1930s. When a new public house was opened in Cox Lane it was named the New Belvedere in order to replace the Belvedere, which had recently been demolished on the same site. Approximately a year later, that same pub changed its name to the General Gordon and in 1985, it was renamed the Earl Roberts.

Brewers in Ipswich

In 1844 there were six brewers in town; a decade later there were twice as many, although half of those were beerhouses making their own ale. It was in 1723 that Thomas Cobbold started brewing at Kings Quay Street, Harwich. In 1746, the business moved to Cliff Brewery, Ipswich in order to make use of the water from springs at Holywells.

In 1888, three of Baron Tollemache of Helmingham’s sons bought Charles Cullingham’s brewery, which was located on a site bounded by Upper Brook Street, Tacket Street, Carr Street and Cox Lane. In the 1950s Tollemache and Cobbold amalgamated and by the end of the decade all brewing had moved to Cliff Brewery. The Tolly Cobbold brand owned most of the public houses in and around Ipswich. Records show that in 1975 Tolly Cobbold had 400 houses on their books in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Eighty-three of those houses were located in Ipswich. Thirty-seven years later, half of the former Tolly Cobbold houses have gone, along with many owned by other breweries.

Traditions

In Elizabethan times, when few people could read, it was obligatory for all trades to have pictorial signs. By the late nineteenth century, however, most companies had abandoned this custom; only inns and public houses with their pictorial signs and barber shops with their red-and-white poles kept the tradition alive.

Social outings and inter-pub competitions have been similarly overshadowed by advances in home entertainment and the motor car industry. Public houses were once known for their fiercely loyal customers and pubs would often compete against one another in darts matches, football tournaments and cribbage leagues. Outings to the beach in a hired charabanc or bus were also popular in the days when few had any form of personal transport.

The current situation

There have been several developments which have challenged the public house as a social centre. In the 1960s the emergence of television sets in most homes encouraged people to stay there in the evenings. From the 1960s onwards the average age of those visiting pubs fell. At the same time there was a competitive growth in what has been called the ‘night-time economy’ including nightclubs, restaurants and takeaways. When the ban on smoking indoors came into effect in July 2007, the industry again felt the impact.

Public houses have faced yet further competition from off-sales in supermarkets where packs of drink have been priced as loss leaders to attract customers into the building.

However, many pubs have been able to adapt to these changes. They have become venues for live music and karaoke or have brought in big screens for sporting events. They have greatly improved the range and quality of food on offer. Others have catered for specific social groups.

Another force for change has been the growth of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), founded in 1971, which now has over 130,000 members. Their campaign for a greater appreciation of traditional beers, ciders and perries as part of our national heritage and culture has struck a chord with those who objected to the limited range that tended to be offered by the larger breweries and tied houses in the 1960s.

At the same time, through publications, festivals and other events CAMRA has promoted the public house as a focus of community life and has sought improvements in all licensed premises.

There are still many pubs in Ipswich in which you can have a drink, ranging from Irish-themed to wine bar. Some of these have long histories; others are here today and gone tomorrow. Although the trade has changed beyond recognition in less than a lifetime, there are still hostelries to be found in the town where you can be sure to feel welcome.

David Kindred

May 2012

Part 1

ESTABLISHMENTS CLOSED SINCE 1919

(Entries in alphabetical order.)

ALBION MILLS

293