Coytes Gardens

The name of this by-way comes from a time when there were many gardens in Ipswich and Dr Edmund Beeston (died 1713), an eminent physician in Ipswich who was ‘exquisitely skilled in botanic knowledge', established his physic garden behind his house in Queen Street. His grandson, William Beeston Coyte, inherited the garden and it is his surname after which Coytes Gardens is named. If there was any justice, it really should have been ‘Beestons Gardens'.

In the summer of 2017, the Highways Authority (Suffolk County Council) has seen fit to rip up all the limestone setts, destroying the middle gutter. They have apparently reused as many of the original blocks as they could - the yellow parking line paint can be seen dotted about in the new surface - and created a cambered roadway with side gutters. The blocks have been set into concrete. Thus we lose a last vestige of the first attempts to pave the streets of Ipswich.

Presumably a number of blocks were broken in the process; this is reflected in the extension of modern block paviours deep into Coytes Gardens from the Princes Street end. These comparison photographs put together by Tim Leggett highlight what some are calling 'corporate vandalism'; others might see it as an improvement.

Coytes Gardens in the 1960s, 2014 and summer 2017