android appIpswich Blue Coat Boy
listed building grade II
last updated Nov 13th, 2021.
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Ipswich Blue Coat Boy
North West, 52.05568,1.15443
closed 1988
38 Old Cattle Market
grid reference TM 163 443
Built in 1620 and much extended in the 18th and 20th centuries, this Grade 2 listed building is now used as shops. In the 21st century it has housed a succession of nightclubs.
Very popular with US servicemen during the Second World War (the US military still adhered to strict Jim Crow segregation, so only black servicemen were allowed in, with white ones using other local pubs).
One notable regular while the pub was popular with black American servicemen was Geno Washington, whose records were popular on the Northern Soul scene.
It was also very popular on market days when the nearby cattle market (now used as the bus station) was still in use.
The pub is shown (though not named) on this old OS map from about the end of the 19th century. larger map
Gallery
Plough 0.03 mile
Miami Bar 0.03 mile
Cosy Club 0.07 mile
Shamrock 0.07 mile
Falcon 0.08 mile
Thomas Wolsey 0.11 mileHistorical interest
A reference appears in the Ipswich Journal*** on April 3rd 1731 to the Bluecoat-Boy in St Peter's Parish in Ipswich.
John Hill has taken the Blue-Coat Boy in Ipswich, lately where Thomas Rush, Innholder, deceased, resided,Ipswich Journal, 8 Apr 1780***
Also listed as New Market Street (in 1830), and at 38 Silent Street.
An announcement was made of death on the 17th March 1810, Joseph Meadows, son of Mr Meadows, of the Blue Coat Boy, Ipswich.Ipswich Journal, March 1810**
To be sold by auction, unless previously disposed of by private contract, the Blue Coat Boy, Ipswich, (along with 6 other Suffolk public houses, Admiral's Head, Bell on the Corn Hill, Bricklayers Arms in Globe Lane, Porto Bello, George the Third, in Ipswich and the Pye at Stonham)…
Landlords
Footnote
A "blue coat boy" was a general term for a scholar at a charity school. The Cardinal College of St Mary in Ipswich was a college "school" founded by Cardinal Wolsey and linked to what eventually became Christ Church at Oxford. This school was built and flourished very briefly (1528-30) but soon fell with its founder. Henry VIII subsequently ordered these school buildings to be dismantled - except the chapel and the watergate - for their materials to be used elswhere. Another Blue Coast school was later built in the Wherstead Rd/Vernon St junction area close to the St Peter's workhouse and can be seen on Victorian maps of this area.
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(some old PO directory information courtesy of londonpublichouse.com)
(** historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
