MERCHANTS HOUSE

 

Built in 1636, it carries that date on the carved bressumer (main beam). Probably the last surviving example of a 16th~17th century Ipswich Merchants house, with warehouses at the rear opening directly on the dock front.  Merchandise was unshipped, stored and distributed wholesale, or sold retail in the shop on the street front.

 

SALE ROOM

 

Ipswich was one of only 4 authorised wool centres in East Anglia (the others being Norwich, Lynn and Yarmouth in Norfolk) and the Isaac Lord buildings were probably the commercial premises for the exporting of wool and the wholesale trading of imported goods.  It's a particularly fine industrial building with a crown post roof and double set of pegged collars, giving a large open area where it is thought finished cloth from the surrounding Suffolk weaving villages was gathered for sale, and then exported to Europe and beyond.

 

CROSSWAY

 

As a delightful example of a heavily studded oak framed structure with herringbone panels, it has been dated stylistically as 1530~50, subsequently confirmed by dendrochronlogy (tree ring dating).  Its impressive roof is constructed with large rafters and curved wind braces.  Stout tie beams with heavy oak braces complete the structure, expressing the importance of both the wool industry and the merchant who constructed it.

 

MALT KILN

 

It was derelict before restoration in 1984, when it was converted in a pioneering step, into a pub known as the Vodka Bar, and has now become a feature of the developing Waterfront social scene.

 

WHERRY LANE

 

This part of the Isaac Lord complex is currently let to various businesses ~ e.g. the John Russell Art Gallery at 4-6.