Lloyds Avenue photograph

The brain-power of the entire Ipswich Society Executive Committee was focused on the dating of this photograph from our online Image Archive.

The sign on Reggie Egerton's showroom reads: ‘…GERTONS (IPSWICH)' but it is on the darker areas of paintwork, once covered by cut-out letters and therefore not faded by the sun. This suggests that this large showroom and works was empty at this time, awaiting demolition. The Crown Street premises were built in 1928. After a series of takeovers and amalgamations, the Crown Street site became redundant and in the early 1960s was sold for a new town swimming and leisure facility, Crown Pools, which was built in 1985. Note how narrow Crown Street appears at this time. The ‘House Warming Centre' at the right later became a Job Centre, then the Hogshead pub.

Looking at the vehicle registration numbers, they changed in August 1962 to include three letters and three numerals plus a letter suffix. The ‘reversed' registrations (letters after numerals) were introduced in 1953 - see the ‘925 YOO' plate on the white taxi. The taxi itself, a Ford Zephyr, was registered in Chelmsford in 1963. Avenue Taxis (at that time) rarely bought new vehicles, so the photograph is post-1965.

Bob Markham tells us that it is a 1950s bus standing at the bus shelter, but that they were not scrapped in Ipswich until the 1970s. Buses on route 12 were put onto one-man operation (note the ‘Pay as you enter' sign) from April 1970 and that particular bus (no 9) was disposed of in the second half of 1973. So the photograph is early 1970s then…

R.G.