Martin & Newby R.I.P.
[sadly closed down June, 2004]
An old established business, suffering closure due to the rise of
warehouse
DIY outlets in the town - provided customer service and the
availability
of small quantities of screws, other fitments, hardware, electrical
goods
and tools - Martin and Newby proclaimed their business on manifold
signs,
dated 1873. While these are all bolt-on signs on a linked string of
individual
shop premises (The Bull pub on the corner, a newsagents, a fruiterer)
which
ostensibly fall outside the brief of this website, the architectural
detail
at the top of the building (shown below) qualifies it.
-
The edifice itself is Commemoration Buildings, dated 1897 to coincide
with
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. We wonder where Martin and Newby was
based
during the first twenty four years of their existence. Below: the shop
frontages
on Orwell Place (formerly Stepples Street) and the side entrance on
Fore
Street, photographed shortly before the business closed its doors for
the
last time.
-
[March, 2005: during a snow shower (see also Unicorn update below), we
see the sad sight of Martin & Newby bereft of its midriff. The shop
section demolished down to the basement and netted off from the
pavement was presumably unlisted, as were the warehouses behind and to
the left, also gone. It's doubtful that any new retailer will display
so proudly the word 'HARDWAREMEN'.]
Just accross the road from the M&N vehicular entrance above: the
carved
wood 'MEREMAYD' on the front wall of 17 Fore Street can be seen:
The attractive frontage of The Unicorn at the corner of Orwell Place
(formerly
Stepples Street to commemorate the stepping stones, used by walkers to
avoid
flood waters from The Wash) and Foundation Street obviously deserved a
proclamation
of it existence. These huge upper case slab serif letters (complete
with
full stop) stand in relief and have been preserved long past the
existence
of the Unicorn itself. The carpet shop which used to occupy the ground
floor
has succeeded by a number of businesses. The Unicorn was a hotel which
was
part of the sizeable brewery behind it. We have already discovered that
brewing took place behind the Rose &
Crown,
not to mention the historic Tolly Cobbold brewery on Cliff Quay - now
sadly
no longer brewing beer. The whole group of impressive Unicorn buildings
(which includes a small theatre, we're told) embody an important part
of
Ipswich history: brewing. There was also a brewery opposite on the site
of Cox Lane Car Park.
Below, we see the Unicorn, with lettering proudly in place, in 1897,
the
flags flying for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. All the
buildings
to the left have gone and the very Stepples Street opened up. The
junction
to the left (below the awnings) which is opposite the mouth of
Foundation
Street is Cox Lane, when it led to dense housing of the poorest
quality:
Permit Office Street, Barclay Street and Union Street . The Unicorn
brewery
closed in 1923, but it remained as a public house until 1977.
[Below: updating the story to the late snows of March, 2005 (you can
see the falling flakes on the images). The building has been cleaned
and extended during major refurbishment; this olde worlde sign was
added high above and facing the Foundation Street car park. The
postmodern twist that the building - now so proudly named in condensed,
serif, gold capitals on a black ground - ceased to be brewery many
years ago may have escaped the developers.]
-
Upper Orwell Street (formerly 'The Wash' to mark the almost constant
flows
of water from the springs around Spring Road via Majors Corner down to
the
Wet Dock) has been ill-served by 'progress' in recent years. Planning
blight
has left many shops empty and boarded up. The Baipo Restaurant,
occupies
a high building which is home to one of the most obscure advertising
sites
in town (arrowed but barely visible on this photograph).
-
'PALMER'S DOOR MATS &e(?)' to fit the triangular shape left by the
adjoining roof. The '&e' (or '&c') presumably is short for
'etcetera'
and makes use of every inch of available advertising space. There is a
decorative
flourish rising up from the roof level next to the word 'Door' and -
hardly
visible here - above the 'ME' of 'Palmer's' the lower part of the word
'FOR'.
Clearly there was a shop or dealer name above this; perhaps the upper
wall
was remodelled - or at least cleaned.
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.