Streetlife

Wow, what a crowd. Do you reckon Coes had a Sale on?!
Any idea what the occasion was?

It's a little bit more 'cosmopolitan' up there these days, with half the world living there and a mobile cop shop seems to be permanently parked there.  I always feel sorry for Coes and the Bridal Shop, like relics left over from when it was a swankier part of town than it is now.

Here's the modern view http://goo.gl/maps/zjfLi Interesting to pick out the buildings from around a 100 years ago. Strangley the are the looks much bigger in the old photo.

I think that's just Google, they streetview tends to make things seem farther away.

Yes, the camera angles/designs affect the picture (Google use a 360 degree lense and then process the pictures to correct the angles and stitch them all together).

But, if you even walk down there it looks smaller now than the old photo with the big crowd of people in it. You see this in old pictures of the town centre too. How did they manage to have two way traffic and run buses/trams through there and have pavements?

Probably is the old camera angles.

I think they may have widened the pavements when they closed vehicle access to that end of Portman Rd /London Rd.  Also that building on the corner is different.  But I know what you mean - I think having lots people people walking in the street makes it look bigger.

Lovely old photo! Note that in the middle distance there is a building with gable end to the road, and you can see something on the end of the roofline -  I reckon this is a flying fish, as it used to be a wet-fish shop (my late Father told me this), and I think this building is now an Indian restaurant.

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/images/ipswich1907.jpg
A quieter day in 1907

Wonderful picture Suffolkboy. Being a fan of sci fi movies, I often think how wonderful it would be to travel back in time with  modern equipment like a camcord and digital camera to capture some superb images. To think that in 1907 they had no idea what hell was going to be unleashed on this planet in 1914. A year that would destroy  human life forever......