The Wet Dock
The very heart of the ancient town was the natural right-angle bend in
the
river and its sudden narrowing down towards the site of the present
Stoke
Bridge (close to the the confluence of the fresh water River Gipping
and the
brackish
River Orwell). The earliest crossing point of this broad and sweeping
waterway,
so central to the establishment and development of Ipswich as an
international
port, would originally have been a ford between the site of Great Whip
Street
and the present St Peter's Dock. The fact that it could be forded at
all,
shows how marshy parts of early Ipswich must have been, the nineteenth
century
Wet Dock coming to a deep-channelled 'nip' near this point, bordered by
the heavy industrial quaysides we know today. Incidentally, the walls
of
the cellars which abutt St Peter's dock are, in part, said to be
composed
of the archways of the cloisters of Blackfriars Priory, which was one
of
several monastic esablishments in Ipswich eradicated by Henry VIII.
These enormous structures in brick and concrete have
largely replaced
the
timber-framed buildings built by Tudor merchants and are now in turn
demolished and tower blocks built.
However, there are
some
survivors: The Neptune Inn building fronting Fore Street once had a
string
of structures behind it reaching the quayside. The Isaac Lord
merchant's
house with a similar frontage nearby uniquely retains its warehouse,
maltings
and stables, so that the corn exports and coal imports could be loaded
and
unloaded, processed and carted away under the eye of the owner. Here is
the earliest house in Ipswich (although Pykenham's Gatehouse
beats
it by a few years and St Mary Elms, for example, has a nave, the
original
small church, built in the 14th century with a Norman Doorway from the
11th
century.)
The signwriters have, over the years, worked to proclaim the company
names
on the frontages of the wharves overlooking the sweep of water formed
by
the magnificent Wet Dock which was opened in January, 1842 and at 33
acres
was the largest area of water of its kind in England.
John Good and Sons The
reddish
brick-coloured
paint underlying the white lettering seems to obliterate earlier
lettering.
Now all has been replaced by the Salthouse Harbour Hotel lettering.
Isaac Lord A
much-lettered name. A trip
round
the whole set of buildings, on to the frontage on Fore Street, the
frosted Chemist shop door opposite is here, plus the bresummer beam
from the Captain's Houses in Grimwade Street.
Burtons
Past Cranfields Flour Mill, we find the famous name
painted at the side and high up on one of the less attractive wharves,
the nearby R.&W. Paul maltings also one on
Princes Street is included here, also The Bull Tavern.
Bridge
Street On the outer wall of a burnt-out wharf, the
last building on the upper
dock,
we find one of the earliest extant street signs, since removed.
Edward
Fison Ltd Out on the spit of land between
the
dock and New Cut (built to bear the ebb and flow of tidal movement,
thus
bypassing the locked Wet Dock); on the other side of New Cut is the
weathered
Bolenda
Engineering Ltd (also, nearer to Stoke Bridge is the enigmatic 'London
Underground' sign).
Coprolite
Street Now transformed into Mortimers, later loch
Fynne Fish Restaurant.
Ransomes Further down Duke
Street towards the Wet Dock lock gates, we find the
trace of another famous Ipswich name.
A chance to compare an
old monochrome
photograph
(sixties/seventies?) of the Dock with the same view in 2004.
Ipswich Whaling Station Although it's on the West Bank, not the Wet Dock, and
although it's got no visible lettering, a lost part of the town's
history.
'A Victorian Vision: The building of Ipswich Wet
Dock' by Bob
Malster
and Bob Jones see Reading List.
[Our background letter 'O' is taken from the John
Good & Sons
building.]
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.