Interesting buildings in Ipswich
A brief wander around Ipswich and a few of the interesting buildings I photographed. No doubt there will be many more in the future.
Bethesda Baptist Church, 9 St Margarets Plain, Ipswich, IP4 2BB
Bethesda is a Baptist Church, members who express a wish to follow Jesus’ command are baptised by total immersion, there is a pool under the dais at the front of the building. Before the current church was built members were baptised in the River Orwell. I don`t think people would want to do this today!
There has been a group of ‘independents’ meeting on the corner of St Margarets Plain since 1782 (when Fonnereau Road was known as Dairy Lane and a stream ran down the middle of the road). By 1834 they had outgrown their building and moved to St Nicholas Street. They did however retain an interest in the site.
In the early years of the twentieth century, it was decided to build a new church on the site of the original meeting place; in 1906 the foundation stone for the new Sunday School was laid, which opened six months later. The total cost had been less than £1,000.
In July 1911, Mrs Susannah Page died aged 81, she had been a member of Bethesda for 67 years and had been Baptised in the river. Her son Arthur offered to pay for the new church building as a memorial to his mother. Numbers 1 to 9 St Margarets Plain were purchased to provide the space needed, the final service in the old Fonnereau Road building was held on 31 December 1911, which was then demolished, the resulting rubble being sold for £88.
The new Bethesda Church held its first service at 7am on Wednesday 2 July 1913, followed by further services later in the morning, in the afternoon and the evening. What London architect Fred Faunch had created was probably Ipswich’s finest façade of the twentieth century. A flight of steps leading to four Cornish granite columns visible the length of Northgate Street.
Number 86 Fore Street
It is dated 1639, probably recording the time alterations were made to the house. The front has a projecting eaves with a carved eaves board supported by carved brackets. The first storey has 2 oriel bay windows with lattice leaded lights and fine carved frames, supported on carved brackets. Small
mullioned casements flank the oriels below the eaves. The ground storey has one 6-light mullioned and transomed window (with 2 carved mullions). A painted panel between the oriels has a similar representation.
At the rear a solar wing extends south, timber framed and plastered, with a jettied upper storey with large casements and a large mullioned and transomed window on the ground storey. The interior has a fine C17 fireplace and moulded beams and ceiling joists. Roofs tiled, with 2 gabled dormers on the front.
There is a 4-centred doorway with carved spandrels representing Neptune and a coa serpent.
The Lord Nelson
The Lord Nelson can trace its history back to 1672 during the reign of Charles II when the local Headboroughs ordered inn keeper William Stephens to repair his pavement. In those early years the hostelry was known as the Noah's Ark, the name was changed in recognition of Nelson becoming High Steward of Ipswich (1800 - 1805). The fact that the Noah's Ark was an Inn rather than just a tavern or alehouse is confirmed by an entry in the borough records of 1696 when a payment was made to the Landlord for billeting soldiers. The building, originally two fifteenth century timber framed cottages has been listed Grade II by the Department of the Environment.
You might wonder why the Lord Nelson in Fore Street has a glazed brick elevation to the ground floor when it is clearly a timber framed building of some considerable age. The brick front was added in the twentieth century as a flood defensive measure, an acceptance that the Orwell would overflow again sometime in the future and Fore Street would be underwater. The glazed bricks are not for flood prevention, that would be much too big a task for a little pub like the ‘Nelson, but simply materials that are robust enough to withstand a short spell of immersion and are reasonably easy to clean immediately thereafter.
In early 2019, Ipswich Borough Council announced its plan to restore the town’s landmark former post office. The Grade II listed building was first opened in 1881, survived two world wars and, during the 1940s, contributed to the UK’s war effort through its finials, which contained strategic metals. Since then, the Old Post Office has housed banks and various other institutions. It now houses the The Botanist Ipswich Bar & Restaurant.
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