Building record WBG 214 - Ivy Lodge

Ivy Lodge is listed at grade II as a 17th century timber-framed structure but in fact dates from the late-15th or early-16th century and contains a heavy timber-frame with the remains of a crown-post roof. The three-bay structure was initially jettied on the north and probably formed a warehouse or service outbuilding at the back of a large courtyard belonging to a merchant’s house on the site of 14 Thoroughfare (which is listed as 18th century but appears older). The entire block belonged to the influential Thompson family at the beginning of the 19th century when the timber frame was encased in gault brick and converted into a fashionable town house that faced south towards the quay. Papers dated 1807 and 1812 belonging to Jacob Thompson who appears to have been the local agent for the new income tax were found beneath wallpaper by the previous owners. There is evidence of an original Georgian layout with arched first-floor doors but this was altered when a remarkable threestoried canted bay window was added soon afterwards, probably for Philip Thompson who owned the house in the 1830s and ran a jewellery and watchmaking business nearby. This window is among the finest of its kind in the region, and would have commanded fine views of the Deben valley before the land to the south was developed. It may have been designed by another member of the family, the well-respected architect Mark Thompson, and erected by the builder and surveyor George Thompson whose house and timber yard lay further along Doric Place. The exterior has altered little since the addition of a bow window and a singlestoried extension in the mid-19th century, and the interior retains an unusual number of ostensibly original Georgian features such as moulded architraves and marble fire surrounds (S1).