464 listed buildings, 11 of them Grade I

The Ancient HouseGrade I listedChurch of St MargaretGrade I listedSwan InnGrade II listedAnglican Cemetery Chapel in the Old CemeteryGrade II listedTolly Cobbold BreweryGrade II listed+44See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

c. 1828

c. 1867

1881

c. 1890

c. 1897

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).

Fore Street29 listed · 4 II*

Berners Street17 listed

St Nicholas Street16 listed · 1 II*

Lower Brook Street14 listed

Museum Street11 listed

Silent Street10 listed · 2 II*

Buttermarket8 listed

Northgate Street8 listed

Anglesea Road7 listed

Orwell Place7 listed

St Helen's Street7 listed

Fonnereau Road6 listed

Of the 464 entries, 251 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 81 entries were listed in 1951, 10 of the 11 Grade I buildings among them. 160 came in 1972, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 9 have been added in the last 15 years.

8 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

Area of Middle and Late Saxon town between Upper Brook Street and Upper Orwell Street

Area of Middle and Late Saxon town, off Greyfriars Road

Area of middle and late Saxon town between Turret Lane and Star Lane

MedievalArea of middle and late Saxon town, and medieval defences, off Old Foundry Road

Area of middle and late Saxon town, off Star Lane

MedievalBuried remains of Late Saxon and medieval town defences, and a section of C14 precinct wall to the Dominican friary of the Ipswich Blackfriars

Dominican friary (remains of), and a section of the east precinct wall

Wolsey's Gate, College Street

3 registered parks and gardens

Chantry ParkGrade II

Christchurch MansionGrade II

Old and New Cemetery, IpswichGrade II*

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

Thomas Wolsey

William Hubbard

John Russell

Clara Reeve

Sarah Trimmer

Richard Cobbold

Charles Stoddart

Josiah Wood Whymper

William Allen Miller

Alfred Baring Garrod

Frank Leslie

Edward Maitland

Edward Byles Cowell

Thomas Spencer Cobbold

Gordon Sprigg

Katherine Prescott Wormeley

F. J. Foakes-Jackson

Henry Percy Adams

Cyril Argentine Alington

Edith Maud Cook

1500165018001950

Thomas Wolsey1473–1530 · English political figure, archbishop of York and cardinal-priest of S…

Clara Reeve1729–1807 · English writer, novelist, translator (1729-1807)

Sarah Trimmer1741–1810 · Author, editor; (1741-1810); married, in 1762, James Trimmer, of Bren…

William Allen Miller1817–1870 · British scientist

Alfred Baring Garrod1819–1907 · British doctor (1819–1907)

Thomas Spencer Cobbold1828–1886 · British physician and helminthologist (1828–1886)

Frank Leslie1821–1880 · English-American engraver, illustrator, and publisher

Charles Stoddart1806–1842 · British soldier and diplomat

Everyone born in Ipswich → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Ipswich has 464 listed buildings, 11 of them Grade I, including Willis Building. Ancient House sits at the heart of it all, with 7 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m. Only 13 of the 64 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Fore Street alone has 29 listed buildings.

Its older streets lie in 15 conservation areas, the first designated in 1974. Of the whole list, 72% are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 56 people born here before 1900, the best known include Thomas Wolsey (1473), Clara Reeve (1729) and Sarah Trimmer (1741). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and 18% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.