Ancient House

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  • Phone
    214 144
  • Transport
    walking: 50m N of tourist office
  • Mon-Sat 09:00 - 17:30

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Lonely Planet review

A glorious 17th-century facade of sugary-white wedding-cake pargeting decorates the front of Ipswich's most famous building. Built in the 15th century, Ancient House (aka Sparrowe's House) is one of the finest examples of Restoration artistry you'll see and crawls with mythological creatures and characters.

There are four relief panels each representing the continents discovered at the time - Asia is an Oriental dome, America is a tobacco pipe, Europe is a Gothic church, and Africa has an African astride a crocodile (eh?)

The building now houses a not-so-ancient kitchen outfitters, but you can take a peek at the hammer-beam roof inside.