android appIpswich Steam Packet
listed building grade II
CAMRA Ipswich & East Suffolk branch.
last updated Jan 10th, 2022.
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Ipswich Steam Packet
also traded as Compasses, Compass, Three Compasses
North East, 52.05246,1.1643
closed 18th September 1960
last owner/operator: cobbold
2-4 Duke St
grid reference TM 170 440
The pub is shown on this OS town plan from about 1880 (larger map).
This building dates from the early 19th century, though there has been an inn on the site since at least 1765.
The pub is shown on a 1778 map as "The Compass"; so sometime in the early 19th century it had become "the Compasses"; it's marked as such on plans understood to date from about the time the Wet Dock was opened (1842).
Now used for student accommodation.
Ian Johnson tells us:
They had a coal stove in the bar with an iron chimney pipe going up through the ceiling. I once leant nonchalantly against that pipe and burned my palm so badly that I had to be rushed to hospital on the back of my mate's motorbike…
Gallery
Bin 93 0.14 mile
Cult Café Bar 0.14 mile
Isaacs 0.14 mile
Briarbank 0.16 mile
Lord Nelson 0.16 mile
Gardener's Arms 0.17 mileHistorical interest
It was announced in July 1805 that the wife of Mr Bromely, at the Three Compasses, Ipswich, has been delivered of 4 children in two births, within the last 15 months. The first two were boys, and the latter fine girls.Ipswich Journal, July 1805***
Whilst a little boy named Elliston, son of the landlord of the Steam packet Inn, was walking along the new landing place at the gas works Quay, he fell in the water, but was rescued by Mr F Pepper, who was passing by at the time.Ipswich Journal, May 1885**
Died on the 22nd September 1885, at 14 Back Hamlet, Mary Ann, wife of mr H W Girling, for 40 years landlord of the Steam Packet Inn, Duke Street, aged 76. Ipswich Journal, Sep 1885**
Landlords
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
Closure date from Ipswich licensing records.
(** historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
(*** historic newspaper information from Bob Mitchell)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
