Smart Street School
Here's a corner of Ipswich, once a large school, then
an Art School annexe
of Suffolk College, later the scene of an exhibition as part of the
'Art
Centre For Ipswich' campaign. Now the playground at the rear of the
building
has been redeveloped in a sympathetic style and the whole complex is
residential.
All the signs on this elevation are obliterated or covered with blue
boards
which once carried the Suffolk College lettering.
However, the ironically named 'Pleasant Row' (below, see inset showing
rusted
modern steel street sign) running down the side of the old school must
originally
have been one of several narrow streets running from the eastern edge
of the old town towards the Wet Dock. Since the building of the
'Eastern Gyratory'
traffic system, a brick wall blocks the street with the once-familar
dockside
maltings (now demolished to make way for 21st century brutalist blocks)
rising behind it.
Walking down Pleasant Row, we discover one
architechtural piece of lettering
which has not been covered by a blue board: 'INFANTS' in terra cotta
serif
caps against a geometric design, with the school door intact below it.
In
the background is the sympathetic new residential development.
-
Back in Smart Street, we find quite grand entrances
once admitting the segregated
boys and girls, away from the infants round the corner. Looking
carefully,
you can just make out the 'medieval'-style lettering as used on the Public
Library entrance in Northgate Street, which has been in-filled with
mortar: 'BOYS'. The inset shows it a little better. A fainter 'Girls'
tablet
is still present above the entrance in the 'square turret' feature
further
down Smart Street. Compare with other schools' lettering here.
Ragged Schools
More schools (Argyle Street, Clifford Road, Bramford Road, Ranelagh
Road)
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Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.