Panel 6: The Georgians

 Historical Content:

The Georgian period in Ipswich was one of extreme economic decline. The arch at the top of the hanging is the carving from the Ipswich Coffee House, which stood at the bottom of Tower Street. It is now over the entrance to Cliff House (the Brewery Tap) at Cliff Quay. On either side of the carving is shown the mechanism from the clock of St Margaret's Church reminding us that clock-making was important in the town. On the left is a long clock by Moore of Ipswich, now in Christchurch Mansion. The arch doubles as a proscenium arch and the green areas below become flats with foliage from the theatre in Tacket Street where David Garrick made his debut in 1741. Within the arch is the Georgian Provision Market (north of Falcon Street) with a drinking fountain in front of it on the left. Below, the stage coach shows that such travel began this century. The fine Unitarian Meeting House (to the right) stands today beside the new Willis Corroon building. Its wonderful carved pulpit (below) is thought to have come from the workshop of Grinling Gibbons. The Old Custom House (beside the grandfather clock) was Tudor and fronted, to the right, by a crane building. Further to the right is the naval dockyard, and behind there is a gravestone with the Hebrew word Shalom (Peace) on it, representing the Jewish cemetery first used this century. Neat fields on the southern side of the river are taken from a painting in the Town Hall. The large pigs would soon have found their way to market near the Provision Market! On the left is Tom Peartree, copied from the painting which Gainsborough stood in his own garden as a joke. Thomas Gainsborough brought his new young wife to live in Ipswich in about 1750. Close to the river is the racecourse which existed until 1902. The windmill to the right is Stoke Mill, long taken down. Behind it is a vat from Cobbold's Brewery.