The family of Geoffrey Chaucer
21 Tavern Street (plaque is low on the right side wall in Tower St)
The Malyn family of Ipswich and London, vintners, took the name of Chaucer, derived from the trade of leather working, with which they were also associated. The Chaucer/Malyns including Geoffrey Chaucer's grandfather, owned and occupied premises on this site in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Thomas Eldred (died 1624)
97 Fore Street (plaque on the side wall facing east)
Eldred was an Ipswich merchant and mariner who sailed with Thomas Cavendish (also of Suffolk) on the second English circumnavigation of the globe 1586-88 - Drake's voyage 1577-80 having been the first. Eldred's house has been demolished but the houses standing across the street today remind us of the period and perhaps the style.
Admiral Benjamin Page (1765-1845)
13 Tower Street
The plaque on this building commemorates the Ipswich-born admiral who lived here on his retirement after a distinguished naval career. He was made an honorary freeman of the borough in 1835. His portrait and paintings of six naval actions in which he took part, which he gave to the town, hang in the library room of the Town Hall.
Thomas Wolsey (1475-1530)
47 Nicholas Street
Wolsey, Cardinal of the Church, Archbishop of York and for 14 years Lord Chancellor of England for Henry VIII, was, next to King Henry himself the most powerful man in the realm. The plaque, mounted on Curson Lodge, a building of appropriate age, reminds us that Wolsey's birthplace stood on a site on the opposite side of the street.
Cor Visser (1903-1982)
44 Fore Street
Born in Holland, the artist settled in Ipswich after the Second World War, during which he was the official war artist to the Dutch government in exile. He lived for some years on a boat in Ipswich dock, finding inspiration particularly in dockside scenes, before making his studio and home in Fore Street in 1962. Ipswich Museum collections contain some of his works. This plaque was designed by Society member, Brian Jepson, for his own house; it is based on the English Heritage template and served as an inspiration for The Ipswich Society's Blue Plaque scheme.