Gallery
Days Gone By: Structures that failed to change the face of Ipswich central shopping
Cowells store in the Buttermarket, Ipswich, in August 1963. The shop was built in 1892 and was demolished in the 1980s when the site was developed as the Buttermarket Shopping Centre. Limmers Restaurant and shop was on the left. Martins Bank was on the corner of Market Lane. The entrance to the Buttermarket Centre and the New Look store is where Cowells Store was. When this photograph was taken parking was allowed on the street. Picture: IVAN SMITH
Shops that have gone from the Ipswich town centre, and largely failed shopping developments in the town, feature in this weeks Days Gone By.
Planners in the 1960s thought that vast, bleak, shopping arcades were the way forward.
The Carr Precinct was part of the mid 1960s redevelopment of the Carr Street, Ipswich area.
Few of the units were ever let and the site was rebuilt with large units facing Carr Street.
The Greyfriars development saw an area of small houses and a cattle market demolished around Princes Street in the mid 1960s.
Few shops opened at the brutal concrete-built site. The market was moved from the town centre, but customers did not follow and the market moved again. In 1982, insurance company Willis took over large parts of the site, converting the multi-storey car park for staff and as office space.
In 1984 the central area, the empty shops and plaza were demolished and replaced with a grassed area.
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Pin Mill featured recently and readers have sent their memories of the hamlet and named some of those featured.
Jill Wright emailed in and said: I can name some people for the photos. The trio at J Ward’s boatyard were, Jack Ward his wife Irene and son Tony. The landlord of the Butt and Oyster was Pat Watts.
Sue Telling also sent an email saying: The picture of the landlord was Pat Watts. He and his wife Gladys ran the pub for many years.
They had a daughter Sarah who lives in Ipswich. Pat was well known for his well groomed moustache and smoking a pipe.
My grandmother, Mildred Burroughs, was very good friends with the Watts and was a cook in the kitchen at the Butt.
As a child I lived with my mother in a caravan in the bottom of my grandmother’s house in Pin Mill, from around 1972/3-1975.
My grandmother looked after me whilst my mum went to work and I would often be sat in front of the Aga in the kitchen at the Butt.
I ate the traditional dishes cooked, such as rabbit, hare, pheasant and fish such as cod and eels.
I remember that the Watts had a dog, I think it was an old English Bulldog.
The house my grandmother owned is still in the family, but the caravan has long gone!
Mark Grimwade also got in touch: In the photograph of the “Grindle Dig” I am bent forwards in the dark sweater.
In the 1964 dig, having been a Ransomes apprentice, I borrowed a horse plough and tried towing it up the Grindle with a Land Rover.
The plough broke and the Land Rover slid sideways into the stream! So it was – and still is – back to shovels! Sadly, but understandably, no photos!
The photos in Days Gone By were great stuff for one who has sailed from, and mostly lived there, since the late 1940s.
Do the photographs featured prompt memories you would like to share? To submit a letter, in less than 300 words, write to David Kindred, Days Gone By, Ipswich Star/EADT, Portman House, 120 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RS or send an e-mail here.