Ipswich Heritage Open Days.....

Spur of the moment decision to join Daughter for a trip round Ipswich on the second day of their Heritage Open Days weekend and we were so lucky weather wise it was perfect for a good meander through town.

I do find it hard to believe that I've lived here for 34 years and been into the town centre more times than I could calculate but there are so many very historic buildings I hadn't even noticed existed. Tut tut!

Tooley's Court
Our first stop was into these alms houses which are still very much lived in as sheltered housing. Lovely greeting at the gate and a really knowledgeable gardener next, then into the building and down to their communal lounge/dining room and a cup of tea. They were all keen to look after us as we were their first visitors. We also met John, a resident, who showed us around a couple of empty bedsits and his own one bed flat.

Reading from the leaflet they gave us it was essential for very wealthy merchants of the 16th century to prepare for their end of life journey by possibly setting up a fund to pay the clergy to pray for their well being after they'd gone, a Chantry (we have housing nearby called Chantry estate which must be connected to that). An alternative way to ensure entry to heaven was to leave a substantial sum as an endowment to some charitable cause. This was Henry Tooley Portman's legacy, in his will be left a proportion of his estate for the erecting of alms houses for the well being of the poor souls within. William Smart was also a successful merchant and his will provided for additional endowments to the property. They were built in 1551 and rebuilt in 1846 in the same style to a much higher standard. More had been added at various times since.  As Daughter said "Amazing that a legacy from 1551 is still funding accommodation for the elderly today", residents pay a relatively small rent which is subsidised by the interest on the original investment! Wish my savings did that well.

3-5 Silent Street

Grade 2 listed late medieval beautiful building which spent many many years as the specialist second hand book shop. Now empty so you can clearly see all the beams and interesting architectural bits.
Blackfriars
The ruins of this Dominican Friary were shown to us by a local geologist pointing out, amongst other things, the marine worm borings in the stone showing that it was brought inland from the coast.

Pykenham's Gatehouse

This is recorded as one of the earliest domestic buildings in Ipswich. It has been home to more than 20 generations. It's tiny inside so must have been a struggle for the gatekeeper's wife if they had children too.
Willis Towers Watson

The Ipswich building is one of the group's largest and most established locations for a company that's in more than 120 countries. Opened in 1975 by Harold MacMillan. The outside is totally black glass. The half acre roof top garden, just outside the rooftop staff restaurant, is lawned to provide insulation and has plenty of benches and tables to give a pleasant change from the office space for lunch in the sun.

The lime green and bright yellow is the colour scheme throughout. Guess that was to put you off turning up for work with a hangover hahaha

This building design has won several awards and in 1991 became the first modern design to receive Grade 1 listing, meaning nothing that can be seen from outside can be changed and nothing structural or decorative inside will change either. Looked to me like desks, chairs and cabinets etc have all been updated.

Daughter and I joined the swimming pool tour. I had heard the building had its own pool but was also led to believe it was only a rumour. Well the ground floor was actually built with an indoor pool along side the gym and creche. Seems the 1970s office workers weren't really into daytime exercise and they were infrequently used so following a full survey of staff it was decided the maintenance costs couldn't be justified so the gym and pool were closed. Because the building is listed the pool remains under the ground floor office space so it could be reinstated if it ever needed to. The creche was never used and I'm assuming that must have been because fewer mums would have worked full time back then.

We had lunch in the staff restaurant and a quick walk round the rooftop garden giving us a great view over the town centre and a nosey down into the little town house gardens.

Then it was home as we'd run out of time,  so maybe next year we'll have to try and visit some of the other 31 places in the Heritage list we didn't see this time.
Really enjoyed all we did see and always lovely having mother/daughter time.
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