Days Gone By - Town captured in colour from eras when black and white was the norm

The Zulu public house at 18 Wolsey Street, Ipswich, closed in March 1965 soon after this picture was taken. The Greyfriars development was then being built in the background.

Colour photographs are something we take for granted now. Photography was first patented in 1939 and in the early years, the only way to add colour to an image was colouring by hand.

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St Peters Street, Ipswich, around 1960s, with Nicholls Car Sales Ltd and the British Sailors Society Seaman’s Residential Club at the corner of Cutler Street on the right. Picture: HARRY DEDMAN St Peters Street, Ipswich, around 1960s, with Nicholls Car Sales Ltd and the British Sailors Society Seaman’s Residential Club at the corner of Cutler Street on the right. Picture: HARRY DEDMAN

There were primitive early colour processes, but were not of much practical use. In the 1930s companies, like Kodak and Agfa, produced colour sensitive film, but most professional and amateur photographs were still taken in black and white because of cost and colour film was not very sensitive, making its use in low light difficult.

Printing presses at newspapers were not able to reproduce colour until the mid 1980s. The first being Today in 1986.

As publisher’s presses were updated, or replaced, more colour appeared during the later 80s, although often restricted to a few pages.

Barges in the River Orwell, close to the lock gates, in 1982. The now closed Tolly Cobbold brewery at Cliff Quay is in the background. Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS Barges in the River Orwell, close to the lock gates, in 1982. The now closed Tolly Cobbold brewery at Cliff Quay is in the background. Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS

Until then there was no point in staff photographers working in colour, with longer processing times, missed deadlines and cost and then readers seeing the result in black and white.

Many amateur photographers took pictures on transparency film and projected the results with the family gathered in a darkened room.

The film of 36 exposures was posted to the film makers for processing and mounting. This often took weeks, unimaginable in today’s digital world.

The underground spiral car park site close to Civic Drive, Ipswich, during excavation in 1965. St Matthews Church is in the background. Picture: TERRY NEEVES The underground spiral car park site close to Civic Drive, Ipswich, during excavation in 1965. St Matthews Church is in the background. Picture: TERRY NEEVES

In today’s Days Gone By, I feature pictures taken by amateur photographers on transparency film, giving us a look at life in Ipswich in colour from eras often recorded in black and white. I have credited photographers where they known.

Do you have memories or photographs you would like to share with readers?

Write to David Kindred, Days Gone By, Ipswich Star/EADT, Portman House, 120 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RS or send him an e-mail.

The photo below is Wherry Quay at Ipswich Dock in the early 1980s. The R and W Paul’s building on the left is now converted to glass fronted offices.

Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS. Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS.

Bistro on the Quay restaurant now occupies buildings in the centre.

The building on the right in now part of the Isaacs on the Quay complex of bars and restaurants. The tower of St Clements Church is in the background.

The next picture is St Matthews Street from Westgate Street, around 1960.

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All of the buildings on the right of this section of St Matthews Street were demolished in the mid 1960s when the road was made into a dual carriageway to where Civic Drive roundabout was built.

The Rainbow public house, at the corner of St Georges Street, closed in 1960.

Picture: HARRY DEDMAN Picture: HARRY DEDMAN

Here is St Margarets Green at around 1960 with an interesting mixture of parked cars.

The Cobbold public house, the Saracens Head on the left, closed in November 1960.

It was one of twenty five inns listed in Ipswich in 1689. It is now a business centre.

Picture: HARRY DEDMAN Picture: HARRY DEDMAN

You can see here Cliff Quay power station from Bourne Bridge, in the early 1960s.

Work first started on the site in 1939, but was stopped at the outbreak of World War Two.

Work restarted in 1945 and the site opened in 1949 at a cost of around £8million. Demolition of the massive building saw the landmark chimneys demolished with explosives in November 1994.

Picture: HARRY DEDMAN Picture: HARRY DEDMAN

Here we have buildings at the junction of Soane Street (left) and St Margarets Street, Ipswich, were altered in the early 1930s to widen the entrance to St Margarets Street.

Two gables were demolished and three new ones built facing St Margarets Street.

The original building was the Packhorse Inn, dating back to at least the 1690s. It seems to have closed by 1813. When this picture was taken around 1960, the building was home to Cafe Blanchflower and A Letts newsagents.

Picture: HARRY DEDMAN Picture: HARRY DEDMAN

Next up is an image of the Cornhill in the 1950s looking towards Westgate Street.

The roads were then open to traffic with a crossroads formed by Lloyds Avenue (right) and Princes Street.

The whole area was then cluttered with pedestrian barriers, lamp posts and overhead cables for trolley buses.

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The gas works at Ipswich Dock in 1960. The gas works moced to this site in 1822 from a small site between Carr Street and Old Foundry Road.

The large gas holder featured was demolished in 1977 after natural gas replaced gas produced from coal.

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Do you remember when houses were being demolished in Wolsey Street in 1965?

The Cineworld cinema site is now in the left background of this view.

The Zulu public house, at the corner of Cecilia Street, is behind the lorry.

Picture: RICHARD PIPE Picture: RICHARD PIPE

These buildings at the junction of Lower Brook Street (off to the right) and Foundation Street, were demolished around 1960.

Star Lane now passes through the left of this view. The site is now a car park and was, until the company moved, a car park for staff at this newspaper.

Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS Picture: RUSSELL WHIPPS

In the next photo you can see Ipswich Dock in 1981.

The R and W Paul building on the right close to the tug is now a glass fronted office site.

Most of the silos of Cranfield Brothers and R and W Paul have been demolished and the sites redeveloped.

Picture: ALAN VALENTINE Picture: ALAN VALENTINE

Do you recognise where this picture was taken?

It is Princes Street from the junction with Tanners Lane in March 1964. What is now the the Curve Bar building, next to the advertisement (left of centre), is the only building still standing from this view. The Civic Drive junction is now where the couple are crossing the road. The Friars Head and British Lion public houses featured on the right closed in 1972 when the site was cleared. The Willis glass clad building now stands on the site of the pubs.

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Last on our gallery is an early 60s view of the Cornhill looking towards Princes Street.

The Cornhill was then open to traffic with bus stops outside the Town Hall.

The Post Office building in the background opened in 1881.

It is presently unoccupied.