'61 Photographs

We have been lucky enough to obtain contemporary photographs from these main sources (apart from the Ipswich Society's Flickr collection, see Links).

Fore Street '61 Then & Now. Architect Birkin Haward oversaw the main project to repair and smarten up Fore Street. On a cold, wet day – perhaps in February 1961 – a set of monochrome photographs were taken of many of the shop-fronts and buildings which required attention. They are not of professional quality, but capture the rather poor condition of things which provoked the Ipswich Society's idea for a renovation scheme. To add interest and aid identification, Society member Tim Leggett has provided the same views as seen today. Click the title of this paragraph to view the 'then and now' pairs of images.

Selected stills from the colour Don Chipperfield film of the Fore Street Improvement Scheme, 1961 originally sponsored by The Ipswich Society. Also a selection of monochrome stills from Anglia TV of the day.

Ipswich Society Slides of the event. (See Links for the Society's extensive Flickr collection of images from which these are drawn.) Also some Photographs of the Queen from the day.

David Kindred, photographer and local history enthusiast, has supplied selected photographic prints for the exhibition and this website: see the PDF of images and commentaries. It is a sobering fact that this fine group of photographs recording the Fore Street Facelift 1961 might not have survived at all. The photographer is unknown, but they were probably taken for the East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Evening Star. They record the 'facelifted' buildings, quite a number of which no longer exist, the work being done and the decorations, also the people – children and old'uns – lined up awaiting the royal motorcade. (David also created a special page for the group on Flickr.)

See also David's Kindred Spirits article about the event and our exhibition from the Ipswich Star (28.7.2015) in our Press section.