- Imposing County Hall, Ipswich was last used by local authority in 2004
- Since then it has fallen into disrepair and become home to homeless people and drug users
By
Chris Parsons
09:25 GMT, 22 August 2012
|
13:19 GMT, 22 August 2012
An historic Grade Two-listed county hall has been subjected to ‘shocking’ damage after being wrecked by drug addicts and homeless people.
The imposing County Hall in Ipswich, for decades the centre of local government in Suffolk, has fallen into disrepair and been systematically destroyed by junkies, yobs and vandals.
The revered 176-year-old structure, built the year before Queen Victoria came to the throne, has seen its fireplaces ripped out and wooden panelling stripped, while there is a tree growing through a smashed window.
Torn apart: A hallway in hallway in County Hall has smashed windows and floorboards removed after falling into disrepair
Disrepair: Loose wiring litters the floor of the hall, while parts of the wall have been torn down or are falling off
Neglected: An upper landing in County Hall shows the bad condition of the historic building
Photographers who specialise in charting urban building damage have revealed how the hall is completely unsecure, with mattresses inside indicating that drug addicts and tramps have taken up residence inside.
The Ipswich building was Suffolk’s County Hall until 2004.
Built at the start of the Victorian era in 1836, the grand hall functioned as Ipswich’s courthouse in its early days, and became County Hall in 1906.
After being renovated in the 1980s, it was closed in 2004 when Ipswich Borough Council moved to Endeavour House, a new building in a different part of the town.
Ipswich Borough Council are said to have met the building’s owners earlier this year to try to ensure it was secured.
One photographer who took images inside the building said: ‘Inside the whole place has been trashed.
Broken windows are a common feature inside the hall, which was last occupied in 2004
Wrecked: Ceiling panels litter the floor in County Hall, now thought to be occupied by drug addicts and homeless people
A smashed window shows the imposing view from the building, pictured right in its heyday
‘It is totally unsecured and there was no problem getting in at all. Once inside it was shocking to see.
‘There are mattresses inside so it is clear that people are living there and there are signs of people using it to take drugs.’
The council was so concerned that it was placed on its ‘Buildings at Risk’ register earlier this year.
Councillor with responsibility for planning and development at the borough, Carole Jones, was horrified to hear how the once glorious county hall has been torn apart.
Cllr Jones said: ‘We had thought it had been secured.
‘This is dreadful news and we shall have to see what can be done.
Imposing: County Hall in Ipswich was last used by the town’s borough council in 2004
‘I know the police are concerned about the building as well.’
There are no immediate plans to redevelop County Hall, which was sold by the council shortly after it moved out of the building.
Labour’s Bryony Rudkin was county council leader at the time of its move to Endeavour House eight years ago.
Outraged by the attacks on the building, she said: ‘It’s never been a beautiful building but it is very imposing and it has a great deal of history there.’
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just say ……….NO !
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Tony, Derbyshire. – I totally agree with you but the trouble is it’s grade 2 listed and therefore English Heritage wouldn’t allow you to make any internal external alterations – they’d rather let it get totally trashed, then pulled down for H S reasons.
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This is happening up and down the UK, councils build new offices and move out of old and they are almost abandoned. In Cardiff the old City Hall is now for Marraiges and a lovely setting as this Suffold County Hall would have been
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Forty years ago Ipswich was a decent, modest, county town. Successive developments have been almost always tasteless and tacky. With the exception of the Wills Faber building everything new in the town is cheap and ugly. It is now nothing more than North Romford, without the charm of Romford. Ipswich looks unloved, so I’m not surprised the local government has let one of it’s finer buildings go to rack and ruin; they just don’t care. If you want to see how redevelopment should be done go forty miles north to Norwich, a vastly improved city with every redevelopment being carefully done and a success.
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There are too many old council buildings that have fallen into disrepair. Profligate councils have been desperate to spend money and move into new buildings, seeing them as status symbols. There’s no need for mend and make do in the crazy world of the public sector because the public purse is bottomless, and council tax players are legally bound to foot the bill for their recklessness. Only if councils had their monopoly position taken away from them, would things change.
. ,
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To think that the Government is wasting over £50,000 a day to watch one man! The same Government wastes millions on Foreign Aid ( like India) yet they will allow this to happen. If we do not investigate, learn from and preserve the past, we have no future.
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I understand that homeless people need somewhere to shelter and that drug addicts want to do their business out of sight but I have never understood why they feel they have to trash the buildings they use. Why rip up floorboards and break glass, it makes no sense……. As to this being a Grade II building, councils demand that any improvements/alterations go through them at enormous cost in case the owner does anything to detract from the building but it seems they are happy to let these buildings fall into rack and ruin rather than allow someone to do them up with d/g etc especially when the building belongs to them. Why was this historic building not sold to someone who would love it and look after it. Now it will probably cost the Ipswich tax payer many hundreds of thousands to put right. I know how much trouble and expense goes into looking after a listed building because I live in one.
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Just like the rest of the UK then
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If a building is not used, it will be become abused. Such vandalism and devestation is to be expected if left empty.
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Use the much vaunted CCTV, identify the culprits and hang them. They will never do that again.
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