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
and the Halberd: 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 is now Mick MacNeil Sports shop proclaims this.
-
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 stratight 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!
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...
-
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.
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.