Ipswich, like many towns, is an eclectic, sprawling muddle of buildings. Down on the Waterfront there has been a 21st-century attempt to achieve a coherent redevelopment of the old commercial warehouses and grain silos. Nowadays most of the warehouses have been replaced with a variety of residential blocks of flats and single storey boat-building workshops. The area is functional and pleasant enough, but there’s no outstanding contemporary architecture and it all looks markedly more interesting on a misty morning at dawn . . .
Or, when there’s a dramatic, fiery sunset.
However, also like many towns, there are little gems hidden away. Last November, I was walking through a quieter residential area and turned up St John’s Road
and came upon this Tudor-bethan style beauty.
‘Gothic House’, 5, St John’s Road was built by Henry Ringham possibly to the design of architect J Phipson between 1851 and 1857. It is a timber-framed house and was constructed reusing old materials with details copied from original Tudor buildings in Ipswich such as the Ancient House in the Buttermarket.
I think the flint cobble ground floor works particularly well with the timber and stucco panels above. It is just such a pity that at some point in the intervening 170 years or so somebody sold off part of the grounds and allowed a disagreeable house to be built so close next door it blights the scene. Of course, if the Gothic House was swathed in mist it would lessen the presence of the ugliness next door. And, as we all know early morning mist does so much to enhance the most mundane of views.
Share this:
Agnes Ashe 
We’re leaving one of the misty seasons behind, so you’ll have to find something else to blot the view….
Yes, think a bulldozer would be the answer!
Great views in the mist.I also enjoyed the Gothic House, thank you.
Yes, the house is straight out of a fairytale isn’t it?
My mind flashed to how excited the owners would have been as they followed their house being built. Reminded me of the scene in ‘Beauty in Thorns’ (Kate Forsyth) where William Morris was building his. Perhaps Gothic House is faintly reminiscent of Arts & Craft style?
Oh absolutely. When I first saw it I thought it was an Arts & Craft house, but it is a decade or so too early. Just an architect and client with vision and the means to build something a little different. Maybe they were in tune with a sentiment and an aspect of Victorian architecture that blossomed into the A&C Movement.