Brand & Sons, Phillips & Piper,
Grey-Green Coaches
Below is the sad state of a once distinguished frontage
in November, 2000.
Part of the upper floors were devoted to the First Floor night club for
many years; the shops below have changed hands several times, but once
belonged
to 'BRAND & SONS' as shown on the decorative panel below the ornate
balcony. Blocked gutters have caused staining, moss and algal growth on
the stonework.
Shortly after the above photograph was taken (March,
2001): a transformation.
The owners, of The Opium Lounge/Buddha Bar, then Ice and Fire have
refurbished
the building and the excellent decoration is clean. One puzzle: the
date stone high up in the gable (just visible
below) is clearly marked 'IX AD 90'; to us this reads '990', but the
building
surely dates from 1890 when Mr Brand and his sons operated a sizeable
business.
Photograph below shows another detail.
Post-cleaning, the capital stone at top left of the
building - opposite
one (just out of shot) which dates the business to 1875 - shows 'E.B'.
So
this must be 'E.Brand established 1875'.
-
A similar naming of a business in the fabric of the
building can be found
at the modest entrance at the corner of Pipers Court in St Margarets
Street.
The large, imposing apartment block which straddles the site of the
town
ramparts between that street and Old Foundry Road was, until the
eighties,
a large factory manufacturing sports goods: 'PHILLIPS & PIPER LTD.:
CHRISTCHURCH WORKS'. It is only a short distance from Christchurch
Mansion
and Park; it's also halfway between Ewers Grey-Green (below) and The
Milepost.
-
The former Grey-Green Coaches depot has large
concertina doors onto both
St Margarets Street and Old Foundry Lane. This view is from the Public
Library's
Lecture Hall entrance on Old Foundry Road; the front entrance carries
similar
lettering stretched in a single line. The modest art deco style of the
building
is well preserved. We can remember travelling in Grey-Green coaches
from
London to Saxmundham in the seventies and, amongst many pauses and
stops,
we pulled into this barn-like building as we paused in Ipswich (the
coaches
used to travel down all sorts of unsuitable roads in those days
including
a two-way Woodbridge Thoroughfare). These days the route is covered by
National
Express coaches which stop at the Old Cattle Market Bus Station. This
spot
would be far too congested with traffic most of the time to use the
Grey-Green
depot. In recent years the building has been used by a taxi company and
car dealer.
Entrance on St Margarets Street
-
This part of the building stands on the historic Old
Foundry Road (itself
commemorating the original Robert Ransome foundry which was the start
of
the Ransome's engineering empire, so central to Ipswich), which follows
the line of the Rampart and Town Ditches round the medieval core of the
town. Since a good repair and cleaning job in Spring 2004, this
building
presents a much crisper countenance to the world. But it's still unused.
It faces the 'Lectures'
entranceway to the old
Central (now 'County') Library.
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.