Situated at the head of the Orwell estuary, IPSWICH was a rich trading port in the Middle Ages, but its appearance today is mainly the result of a revival of fortunes in the Victorian era - give or take some clumsy postwar development. The two surviving reminders of old Ipswich - Christchurch Mansion and the splendid Ancient House - plus the recently renovated quayside are all reason enough to spend at least an afternoon here. Ipswich also boasts a wealth of medieval flint churches, some now locked and slowly rusting away, but others sympathetically restored. One now houses the tourist office, from where guided walks depart a couple of times a week during the season (May-Sept Tues & Thurs 2.15pm; £1.75) - perhaps the best way to see the town on a short visit.
The Town, the ancient Saxon market place, Cornhill, is still the town's focal point, a likeable urban space flanked by a bevy of imposing Victorian edifices - the Italianate town hall, the old Neoclassical Post Office and the pseudo-Jacobean Lloyds building. From here, it's just a couple of minutes' walk to the Buttermarket and Ipswich's most famous building, the Ancient House, whose exterior was decorated around 1670 in extravagant style, a riot of pargeting and stuccowork that together make one of the finest examples of Restoration artistry in the country. Since the house is now a shop, you're free to take a peek inside to view yet more of the decor, including the hammer-beam roof on the first floor.
From the Ancient House, head up Dial Lane past the fifteenth-century church of St Lawrence and you are soon on Tavern Street, where two wonderful mock-Tudor shops, built in the 1930s, face the Great White Horse Hotel, the "overgrown tavern" which appears in Dickens' Pickwick Papers . Heading north from here up Northgate Street takes you past the much-restored sixteenth-century, half-timbered Oak House, once an inn and now housing office space, to busy St Margaret's Plain and the gates of Christchurch Mansion (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2.30-4.30pm; free). This handsome, if much-restored Tudor building, sporting seventeenth-century Dutch gables, is set in 65 acres of parkland, an area larger than the town centre itself. The mansion's labyrinthine interior is well worth exploring, with period furnishings and a good collection of paintings by Constable and Gainsborough, as well as more contemporary art exhibitions.
On the south side of the centre, follow Key Street and you'll soon reach the Neptune Quay marking the northern edge of the Wet Dock , the largest in Europe when it opened in 1845 and looking much as it did then, apart from the rash of yachts in the marina. The smell of malt and barley still wafts across the quayside, and several of the granaries continue to function, though other warehouses have been turned into pubs, restaurants and offices. Halfway along the Neptune Quay stands the proud Neoclassical Customs House, built for the opening of the dock.
Fifteen minutes' walk south of Neptune Quay via Orwell Quay is the Tolly Cobbold Brewery (guided tours £4.50; for latest times & details call 01473/261112), which rewards visitors with a sample of its brew after the tour of its Victorian premises. Tours begin in the Brewery Tap pub (closed Sun) next door.
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