Ten years on in Ipswich: A nostalgic meander down memory lane

Although I visit Ipswich regularly to watch football, I haven't explored the town in general for some time. I moved there in 2014 and lived in three different and differing areas of the town before moving away last March.

The journey begins

So, off to revisit my beginnings in the town and see how much it has changed over the last ten years, or not, as the case might be. I walked up Orford Street past The Brewers Arms, which looked much smarter with a freshly painted frontage.

Barbara Norrey

I remembered the standard features offered – Sky Sports, live music, a beer garden, a pool table, and a dartboard – but I was surprised to see that you can now “eat your takeaways” there. Only, maybe not for lunch, as they don’t open until 14:00. Saves the landlord/lady/person from having to slave over a hot stove, I guess – I’d be happy with that if I were the host.

Time was money in public houses, where it was said that money was made in food, as saloon bars were transformed into steak and kidney pie or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding venues. However, as restaurants and takeaways proliferate exponentially, it is perhaps no longer the case in busier areas. 

A surprise in Ann Street

Turning left into Ann Street, which is lined with late Victorian terraced houses of varying sizes and styles, I found that it had changed little. That's not much of a surprise when you consider the houses were built around 1890.

Barbara Norrey

But, there were two men and a digger busily excavating at the beginning of the road when I arrived. This in itself was an unusual sight, as there are usually at least six or more extra men in high-viz jackets watching a hole-digging procedure, showing varying amounts of ennui.

I asked one of them why they were digging, and he said they were putting in electric cables for two car charging points in the first resident-dedicated parking bay. I was surprised and impressed. Change for the better is starting to happen, evidently.

Norwich and Bramford Road developments

Turning left again at the end of the street, I walked down to the main road. Another change for the better reared up in front of me in the shape of the high-rise building near the junction of Norwich Road and Bramford Road. It always reminded me of a large block of flats with a smaller block clinging to its side like a child. I always did have too much imagination.

It has now been ‘refurbished’ externally and looks rather wonderful, comparatively speaking; a consequence of the tragedy at Grenfell, I believe – though whether this is a skin-deep transformation or a genuine fire safety measure, I cannot tell. One would assume and hope that the latter is the case.

Barbara Norrey

Moving on towards the town, there was initially not much to see, except for a few run-down or closed shops. It was pretty much thus, though, if memory serves me well.

Looking for changes, I noticed further down on the right, the wonderful music shop had gone. But the windows still looked interesting and it transpires that it’s been replaced by an exciting venture named ‘The Hive’ – which is, and I quote, ”A new grassroots-based organisation, developing a multi-functional creative space in the heart of Ipswich, with a leading focus on supporting the diverse community in and around Norwich Road”.

Their aims and work at the venue are praiseworthy, and the loss of the music shop, though sad, has allowed this transformation of the premises to become the home of a heart-warming and inspirational project.

A favourite place

Opposite is the Bicafé o Português, which was one of my favourite places when I lived here. Great company, great staff and owner, great coffee, great cakes and great atmosphere, this Portuguese café is – did I mention – a great place to visit.

I popped in and sat with three nice golf-mad gentlemen, one of whom had been coming to the café for 20 years, since it opened in fact, and confirmed for me it was the same owner, which was good to know.

It has all been recently refurbished and is quite upmarket in style and comfort, and there is now an adjoining food store (which used to be a wedding dress shop), which looks impressive too. The shop and the café both cater for vegans, vegetarians and anyone who follows a gluten-free regime. I have updated my rating from great to excellent!

My overriding memory of the café, however, is from an evening in 2016, when I was sitting at home, just two streets away. There was an almighty roar, and I would perhaps have been puzzled, had I not just seen Éder Lopez, a late substitute for the injured Ronaldo in the UEFA EURO final, score the winning goal for Portugal in the 109th minute of the match against France. It made me smile.

A special shop

One of my favourite shops is next – Coes of Ipswich – which has not changed one jot, thank goodness, neither in the quality of goods nor the decency of service. I was privileged to bump into David Coe, who told me he has been working on the shop floor since he was 14 years old – 72 years ago. “I lived above the shop”, he said, “and during the war we slept in the basement”.

I asked him what changes he had seen over the last ten years, for example, regarding customers and the retail trade, and he said very little for the shop in Ipswich, which is blessed with its own car park. However, other branches had closed (Lowestoft and Dovercourt) due to the inability or refusal of councils to address the problem of central parking, either through inadequate provision, excessive charging hikes, or by sanctioning huge retail parks on the edge of a town with correspondingly large free car parking facilities.

Ultimately, this approach is short-sighted, as it ends up with a different problem.  

Across the road

The Suffolk Halal Store is still manned by the same friendly guys selling fruit, vegetables, meat and general provisions for the store cupboard. When asked for their opinion on local changes, they unsurprisingly said there were now too many Asian grocery stores.

My friends, the star tailors

My next stop was to catch up with probably the first friends I made when I moved to the town. STAR Dry Cleaners & Alterations is run by two brothers. Ferdun, brought up in a tailor’s shop and with 35 years of experience in his trade, came to Ipswich from Turkey in 1998, and Akif works with him.

Ferdun’s work ethic always struck me, as I could see him by the window, head down, working on his sewing machine at what seemed like all hours of the day, even when I walked past the shop into town.

Barbara Norrey

Early on in my time here, someone broke their window, and that seemed like a terrible thing to me, so as a pretty useless gesture, I took them some chocolate biscuits. Many weeks of waving and smiling as I passed, along with an open invitation from them to drink tea and chat (and authentic Turkish Delight!), have made me consider them friends ever since.

They are truly lovely men who work hard and are very good at their job. Their excellent reputation keeps them busy.

St Matthews Street

Moving on more quickly from the first stretch of St Matthews Street, as not much had changed, I took the zebra crossing by the roundabout to the left-hand side of the road.

I noted the Funeral Parlour was still there. I suppose their business doesn’t fluctuate as much as others, but I did darkly wonder about the impact on their ‘trade’ of the pandemic? Best not to dwell on that thought.

Over the road, Spoon is still offering “All You Can Eat”, which goes against everything that makes healthy sense – but if you need any second-hand furniture, this is the small strip of town in which to be. I have frequented and found treasures in all three of this group of shops – jolly good value they are, too, and the money benefits others; what’s not to like?

Westgate Street

Going into Westgate Street was perhaps the most sobering part of my journey. It had a different feel from the bustling street I remember. With the empty shops like missing teeth in a tentative smile, there seems so little to tempt people back into the town. Marks and Spencer?

Sophie DebenhamIpswich.co.uk

The one bright spark in this sea of gloom for me was the relocation of Franklins to a magical new and enlarged, well-stocked store – but that’s a very subjective choice. And only fellow hobbyists will venture in to find it – parking in the Regent Theatre car park just behind and probably diving back out that way, with maybe a quick trip to M&S or the Post Office whilst in town.

Trespass ye not

A report in a tabloid on Saturday, 7 June, highlighted that “Trespass in Westgate Street, Ipswitch (sic)…well it was The Sun…was seen plastered in 'closing down' and 'everything must go' posters this week...banners stated it will close Saturday, 18 October”.

Sardonic comments from locals allegedly speculated on its replacement – a vape shop, a phone shop, a barbershop? I can’t think from whence came those novel ideas.

Interestingly, some sceptics have said it is not closing down, it’s a ploy to negotiate terms for renewing their tenure. If that’s the case, they are ‘ploying’ in Leicester and Middlesbrough too, where there are imminent closures promised – or threatened? My mind is not devious enough to be a businesswoman. Though it is wonky enough to fleetingly think ‘Forgive us our trespasses’. Hah!

 To be fair, it has been announcing closure for as long as I can remember, on and off, with corresponding ‘everything must go’ sales. I asked in the store why it was closing and was told it was an ‘issue’ with the landlord. I have heard this before from several shops in the vicinity, all allegedly under the same landlord. 

There is little else that tempts me in this stretch of Westgate Street. I’m not a Primark fan, and I can find similar items elsewhere for the same price or better. Again, a subjective view, but given footfall, it would appear not an unusual one.

Cornhill

Moving on, past the vast desert of Debenhams on my left, and the scaffold-wielding, long-awaited, but still non-existent (promised) Pret on the opposite corner, I arrive in the town’s ‘main square’.

Here the market sits, somewhat fractured by the ‘improvements’ made, and I think Benjamin Catt would be horrified to see the scars in front of his beautiful building.

But that’s another story.

The bottom line

What is fuelling the worsening demise of the high street?  

Is it a lingering legacy of the COVID-19 lockdown era? That seems so long ago now, and it's strange to think that one day it will be discussed in historical terms, just like the Black Plague and the Spanish flu epidemic, for example.

Is it online ordering?

Is it a parking problem? Not just lack of, but price of? Edge-of-town retail shops boast plentiful free parking on site. 

Is it because struggling or greedy landlords are doubling rents on shops? Are the increased costs of National Insurance payments for employees, VAT, or increases in tax and the minimum wage weighing heavily on the owners of small businesses?

Is it Council ineptitude, wasting money on ineffectual and underwhelming projects like the Cornhill?

Or is the economic downturn just forcing people to spend less money? The pleasurable activity of ‘browsing’ the shops is becoming rarer, through lack of disposable income; ergo, the shops to browse are disappearing – a Catch-22 situation.

Of course, it must be some or all of these combined and more. I know it’s a national problem, but it manifests itself in varying degrees from town to town and from city to city. The big question is, how do we reverse the problem in Ipswich? In addition to nurturing newly founded businesses that are already making a mark, there is a need for generation, encouragement, and support for new projects. But how do we make that happen? It’s the sort of question that makes my brain implode.

Then a busker with an excellent voice lifted my spirits, I do think we get a good calibre of street entertainment in Ipswich – so I left for my train with a smile on my face.

Barbara Norrey

The journey home

Inside the station, I was amazed to see that a beautiful and well-stocked ‘train food’ Co-op had sprung up, like magic, by the entrance where they used to sell tickets. I was a little worried, though, by the ‘chilled’ room at the end, which was full of all kinds of alcohol. I inquired about the practicality of this for home football matches, knowing the hordes that come through en masse (even Starbucks stays firmly shut), but was assured that there would be restrictions on sales per person. Hmm - good luck with that one; it sounds like a recipe for verbal strife.

On the train, trying to order impressions and thoughts surrounding my short revisit, I knew I must return (not just to watch my beloved team), but to gain an insight into the movers and shakers of the ‘ancient settlement’ of Ipswich, both past and present.

I will always retain a great fondness for the town and it’s sometimes easier to observe from a slight remove...watch this space!