30th November - Ipswich Historic Waterfront

John Field - report by David Sparkes

John Field introduced himself as born and bred in Ipswich. His father worked in the docks, so from an early age John had an interest in the waterfront area. John’s career was in town planning, starting in Manchester and other places and later returning to work for Ipswich Borough for 26 years. His work in planning and conservation covered the transition of the Wet Dock from a working port to a marina, residential and leisure area. After retirement he still has an active, voluntary interest through the Conservation Advisory Panel, Ipswich Maritime Trust and other organisations.

The introduction covered 1400 years of history in about 14 minutes! Some aspects were new for many of us – for example that Wolsey’s Gateway was a “water gate” built on the quayside at that time, for access by boat only. The earliest buildings remaining on the waterfront date from about 1440, as part of the Isaac Lord complex of merchant’s house and warehouses.

The talk concentrated on the last 20 – 30 years and a digital slide presentation took us around the dockside area with past and present views, demolition and reconstruction and plans for future developments. Some aerial photos were taken by the speaker himself, from an AA spotter plane, used for monitoring traffic – and traffic is a key issue for the waterfront with the east-west traffic bottleneck between the town centre and waterfront conflicting with the need to connect the two areas for pedestrians, cyclists and bus users. This was also a topic for lively debate in the question and answer session at the end of the meeting!

Redevelopment has been based on the marinas and flats, but there are also about 14 restaurants and cafes so far. Although the recession has halted the flats, development continues on the university and college sites. John described the decisions on the height of new buildings being related to the scale of the water area (26 acres). They are generally 8 to 10 storeys, although the largest tower block is 23 storeys. He considers there should be no more expansion of the marinas , so that there is still some open water and space for visiting historic vessels.

There is still some industry left around the Wet Dock. Ship building has been part of the history of the area on and off for 600 years. The tradition is still carried on by Spirit Yachts, apparently the only firm in Europe making large wooden yachts, costing up to £5 million. Fareline also has a base here for fitting out and sea-trialling its more modern and plastic vessels.

Ron Davies gave the vote of thanks. He compared the new image of the waterfront with his own experiences of working in the area when it was a working dock, including the warehouses populated by large, well-fed rats! Ron has previously presented a meeting about his involvement in shipping at the port of Ipswich, so it was interesting to have a different perspective on the history, architecture and redevelopment of the dock area. The before and after photographs and the speaker’s inside knowledge gave us a real insight into the transformation of the waterfront.