A town’s shame
Ipswich, former County Hall. Photo by Barbie Lindsay
Grade II-listed, 1836, W. McIntosh
Built in 1836-37 by W McIntosh Brooks, East Suffolk County Hall was originally the area’s gaol and law court, but following extensions for council offices in 1906 by JS Corner and Henry Miller, it became the headquarters of the local district council. A building initially designed to instil awe, and then to inspire with civic pride, it once boasted fine wood panelling and stained glass windows, but in recent years, it has been fallen victim to vandals and thieves. Copper and lead have been stripped, letting water flood in; much of the panelling has been vandalised; and the glass on the clock tower has been kicked out, leaving the clock mechanism to rust in the rain. The Victorian Society calls on the council to serve the current owner with an urgent works notice, ensuring that the building is made secure and that emergency repairs are completed as soon as possible.
Ian Dungavell, Director of the The Victorian Society said ‘This is a case of a sloppily worded agreement that left the owner free to neglect a historic building. County Hall was sold to a private owner. In return for permission to build flats on adjacent land, the council was supposed to get the owner to develop and protect the historic building. This didn’t happen. Security measures have clearly been inadequate.’
Status Update / March 2026
Following the Victorian Society’s intervention in 2012, Ipswich Borough Council confirmed that the owner, Rainbow Developments, was working to secure the building ‘straight away’. Six years later, proposals were put forward to convert the building into 40 apartments, and these were approved in 2020, but in 2024 it emerged that the developers did not have planning permission after a legal agreement between them and the council had not been signed. In a recent vote on the matter, the council approved the proposals unanimously, suggesting the development will go ahead after all.