News that the Victorian Society had placed the Grade II listed Tolly Cobbold Brewery on their register of the 10 most endangered buildings in UK broke in September this year.
Brewing has taken place on this site since 1746 or possibly a little earlier but ceased in 2002 since when the building has been neglected except for the Cobbold family home – The Cliff – which became the Brewery Tap, a gastro-pub most ably run to this day by Mike and Georgie Keen. Highly recommended! Every Cobbold who sets foot inside gets a wonderful welcome!
Back in 2013 Pigeon Investment Management who own the building obtained planning permission for a scheme which would have preserved the brewery as a heritage site but which depended on a hotel and a supermarket. Demand for these has since evaporated so the new scheme announced in November this year proposes a 300-seat auditorium in the brewery and some 222 residential units in their place.
The proposal is likely to go before the planners early in the New Year and there is the thought that the scheme might also provide a new home for the Ipswich Transport Museum. Watch this space!
