The Co-Op
The Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, now the
Ipswich and
Norwich
Co-operative Society (or INstore), has a long history in the town. Like
the best of the working class movements it has a sterling illustrated
symbol,
the clasped hands, below the date '1908' and stirring motto: 'EACH FOR
ALL & ALL FOR
EACH':
The handsome extension to the original, ornate Co-operative store just
across
Cox Lane from this view was clearly built in 1908. Its recently
restored
fabric, ball finials and motto and curved display windows provide a
simpler
architectural approach. As extra space was needed and new extensions
added
towards Majors Corner, the buildings and lettering/monograms become
more
austere and functional:
In 2004 partial renovation of the Carr Street Co-op gave the whole
store a facelift, but sadly the original gothic palace of retailing
that was the first of the main Co-op stores was sold off to Shoefayre
and Poundland. The opticians, chemists and travel agency shops still
occupy the parts of the building on one side of Cox Lane.
A 'lost' part of the Co-op, perhaps? During the facelift of the string
of
linked shops in Carr Street (which consists of new doors and a
big
white strip above all the windows on the ground floor...), we noticed
this
ghost of lettering: 'CO-OPERATIVE', surely, hovering above the entrance
to Argos over the road. Does anyone remember a time when the Co-op
occupied
this realtively new building, which presumably went up after demolition
of the East Anglian Daily Times printworks and the erection of 'Carr
Precinct'
(boo!)? Perhaps the sign caught fire - hence the marks on the beige
brickwork.
Meanwhile, the very heart of the Co-op beats in its smaller local shops
and neighbourhood premises. Here we see an interesting repeat of the
symbol
and motto high above the Foxhall Road branch (close to the junction
with
Back Hamlet) where the triangular upper section suggests a much bigger
building
than that which actually lies behind it:
Here the suitably cuffed, obviously male, clasped hands appear from
beneath
a furling banner in a slightly surreal conjunction. The banner bears
the
motto (not fully readable in this image): 'EACH FOR ALL & ALL FOR
EACH', the whole set in a
semicircular
moulding and flanked by smaller versions containing sculptural scallop
shells.
[Update November, 2004: the whole of the above shop on Foxhall Road
disappeared! No chance of reistatement of
the above lettering. Here's the void prior to rebuilding during 2005
and the brand new shop, now set back from the pavement in September.
The only lettering build into the frontage is the dated roundel which
comemorates the buiding of the original shop in 1906.]
-
From here it is only a short walk to Ruskin
House and the Blooming Fuchsia on
Foxhall Road.
And just to prove that the Co-op consistently adorned the most modest
of
its buildings:
These beautifully designed art-nouveau influenced monograms stand high
on
light coloured brick pillars at either side of a goods entrance beside
the
Co-op shop in Cauldwell Hall Road. The importance of this branch and
depot
(the central bakery was close by on the site of the present Springlands
Close, off Upland Road) may account for such splendid lettering. To the
left we surely have the word 'BUILT'; to the right the date '1896',
both
are intertwined and include a vine/leaf motif. A metal roller door now
occupies
the entrance between. It's interesting to compare this with the rather
more
florid '1900' date further down Cauldwell Hall Road on the corner of Freehold
Road. [The monogrammed capitals on the above building find echoes
on
a terra cotta house fascade on Aldeburgh's
seafront and Felixstowe's Fludyer Arms.]
Reading
The published history of the Co-op in the area provides many
interesting
facts and photographs from its inception in 1869 to the end of the
twentieth
century:
'People & Places: A pictorial history'. Ipswich and Norwich
Co-operative
Society Limited, 2000 (ISBN 0953966305). This was, suitably, offered to
those distinguished Ipswich residents who maintain the fine tradition
of
daily milk delivery and copies of the book were delivered to their
doors by
their
roundsmen and roundswomen, so they got their divi, too.
Home
Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.