Edme Bakery, Topall Tea and W.B.
Kerridge
These two examples of traders lettering are a few
hundred yards apart.
To
the right, the <'EDME' BAKERY> more or less follows the slope of
the
lower roof of the adjoining property. This is the end wall of Galaxy
Travel
in Dog's Head Street, opposite Sainsbury's. The trade name within the
single
inverted commas brings to mind the Edme Brewery (it's lettered on a
large
brick built industrial chimney) at Mistley near Manningtree on the
River
Stour - a company now better known for its homebrew kits.
To the left is the ghost of a painted advertisment on the end wall of
the
building now used by the Samaritans as a charity shop at 8-10 Eagle
Street.
'DRINK TOPA(?) TEA' sits on a cream background. There is a larger
letter
'A' under the 'D' of 'Drink': clearly an earlier sign. [Update
November, 2006: It might be 'TOPAZ TEA' which a little
digging reveals is also known as Yellow Sapphire Tea and contains 45%
Chrysanthemum, 35% Bael fruit and 20% Gynothemma, although we suspect
that this Topaz Tea was of a
slightly more pedestrian stripe. Thanks
to Richard Attenborrow.]
[Update June 2008: The photograph of the Old Cattle
Market from around 1908 - below - shows not only the long demolished
buildings to the left of Dogs Head Street and no. 46 (clearly numbered
on the right and which stands where the country bus station now
operates), but very recognisably the Plough public house and behind it
the 'Edme' Bakery lettering which survives to this day.]
[Update February 2007: Now there's
a coincidence! Browsing through the latest book of Dave Kindred's
'Suffolk from the Archive' period photographs, we found a shot of
Orwell Place (formerly Stepples Street) looking away from the town
centre towards Eagle Street - you can recognise the timbering and
fenestration of the Spread Eagle public house at the left in the image
below. It is the painted advertisement on the side wall of the building
on the right which catches the eye:
'(cropped word at top), IMPORTED
DRINK TOPALL
TEA
SOLD...
400...'
So that probably solves the Topaz (sic) Tea mystery on the nearby
building in Eagle Street. Having examined the side wall of the building
today, there is clear evidence of a reddish brick paint over the whole
surface, which suggests that the lettering is still hiding beneath it.]
And on the other side of the Tea advertisement: it's
The Leaning Tower
of
Eagle Street with (inset) a blank cartouche high up which once carried
an
advert.
On a much larger scale, 'W.B. KERRIDGE: TAILOR;
W.B.KERRIDGE: THE
PEOPLE'S
CASH TAILOR' remains proudly on the end wall of the chemist in Bramford
Road, close to the Suffolk Record Office and the two lettering examples
of Bramford Road School. In this
photograph
from 2001, the lettering is partially obscured by builder's shuttering
and
a discolouration on the wall. In pristine state it must have been an
eye-catching
advertisement of affordable tailoring for the people for those
travelling
from the Bramford direction.
This must be one of the biggest examples of trade
lettering in Ipswich,
rivalling in its scale (if not its quality and elaboration) the example
in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe: 'E.F.
Andrews'.
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.