An hour from London by train, with a working waterfront that feels like the Mediterranean on a summer’s day, a collection of 600 listed buildings and a live music scene energetic enough to have lured Ed Sheeran to perform a surprise gig in a timber-framed Tudor pub — Ipswich is not the town most people think it is, and its boosters are betting the rest of Britain is about to find out.
The Suffolk town is currently bidding to be named the UK’s City of Culture in 2029, and a pipeline of new attractions is already taking shape: a clay museum, the refurbishment of the Art Deco Broomhill Lido, a waterfront sauna and the reopening of Ipswich Museum. “People look down on Ipswich,” says Joe Bailey, chief executive of live music organisation Brighten The Corners. “But actually it’s the soul of Suffolk.”
The waterfront is the obvious place to start. The Orwell Lady river cruise sets the scene — tales of smugglers, oystercatchers on the wind, a six-storey Tudor folly on the bank and the spot where Admiral Vernon, who introduced “grog” to the Royal Navy, once lived. At the dock, Spirit Yachts still builds vessels of the kind Daniel Craig cruised into Venice aboard in Casino Royale. Back on land, cafes and restaurants spill onto waterfront pavements, masts tinkle in the breeze, and gleaming yachts bob alongside new pontoons. In summer, the effect is distinctly Mediterranean.
The food scene rewards exploration. Bistro on the Quay delivers a three-course set menu at pocket-friendly prices — satay chicken to start, beef slow-cooked in Belgian beer and gingerbread to follow, then a custard tart with poached rhubarb, blood orange, honeycomb and mascarpone. The French-style Crafty Fox does a crousti patate of melted brie, bacon and onion jam over crispy roast potatoes. The classic Greyhound pub serves swordfish steak with sweet corn salsa and sits just up the road from the 16th-century Christchurch Mansion.
Christchurch is worth unhurried time. A handsome red brick pile fringed by parkland and ponds, it houses Constable paintings of family and friends — particularly resonant in his 250th anniversary year — with The Hay Wain arriving on 11 July. The mansion’s park hosts the largest free one-day music festival in the country, Ipswich Music Day, alongside the Food and Drink Festival and the Ipswich Windrush Society’s Heritage and Legacy Music Festival.
The streets reward wandering. The Sailors Rest, a jettied timbered building in burnt tangerine, leans over a lane called Silent Street. The Ancient House froths with pargetting. Guided tours with Ipswich Tourist Guides add depth — it was, according to guide Evelyn, the port established by King Rædwald that gives the town its claim to be England’s oldest. A surviving red brick Tudor gate is all that remains of a school built by Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s fixer, who was born and baptised nearby. The Thomas Wolsey pub — timber-framed, beamed and panelled — is where Ed Sheeran chose to perform an unannounced gig last year. Pink plaques mark his various appearances around town.
The evening economy holds its own surprises too. The Wine Boutique on the waterfront pours generous glasses alongside vinyl records and a corner player. The ex-nave of St Stephen’s church has been converted into a music venue, DJs set up where the altar once stood.
Getting there is straightforward. Greater Anglia trains from London Liverpool Street take just over an hour from £22 return. The Salthouse hotel on the harbour offers 70 rooms and a new spa, with a restaurant refurbished by the designers behind The American Bar at The Savoy. Doubles with breakfast from £208.
