IPSWICH'S original railway station has come to the end of the line as 157 years of history is reduced to rubble.The town's original station was off Croft Street, in the Old Stoke area of town, built by the Eastern Union Railway in 1846.
By Paul Geater
By Paul Geater
paul.geater@eveningstar.co.uk
IPSWICH'S original railway station has come to the end of the line as 157 years of history is reduced to rubble.
The town's original station was off Croft Street, in the Old Stoke area of town, built by the Eastern Union Railway in 1846.
Now it is being pulled down to make way for more homes in the Stoke area.
"We are looking to clear the site as soon as possible – we can't say exactly when the sheds will come down, but it isn't far off," said a spokesman for English Welsh and Scottish Railways, which owns the site.
"Once it is cleared we will be able to talk more to developers," he said.
For many years during the steam and diesel era the shed was known as Ipswich Loco, home to the town's fleet of locomotives.
Later it became a carriage store and then used to repair freight wagons.
Recently it was used by freight company EWS to store withdrawn locomotives – but no one is employed there full-time.
Now demolition contractors are due to move on site to pull down the remaining buildings and clear the site for redevelopment.
Although its heyday had passed, the depot achieved one last weekend of fame in 1996 when it played host to the EUR 150 event, which marked the anniversary of the arrival of the first railway to the town.
Hundreds of people visited the depot to see steam, diesel, and electric locos spanning nearly a century which were on show to the crowds.
Part of the site of the old Ipswich Loco depot is already earmarked for residential development in the town's draft local plan.
However developers have been talking to the council about the possibility of building homes on the whole site.
"No firm plans have been submitted to the council, but that is clearly in the mind of some developers – we would not be surprised to see an application for that," said a council planning official.
The existing buildings at the site were not listed and there would nothing to prevent them from being demolished by the rail company, he added.
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