It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, after Peterborough and Norwich.

The waterfront, south of the town centre on a meander of the River Orwell, offers a picturesque setting with a marina, luxury yachts, high-rise apartment buildings, and a variety of restaurants and cafes.

Ipswich is surrounded by 50 million Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB): the Suffolk Coast and Heaths and Dedham Vale.

As the coastal states of north-western Europe emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, essential North Sea trade and communication between eastern Britain and the continent (especially to Scandinavia, and through the Rhine) passed through the former Roman ports of London (serving the kingdoms of Mercia, the East Saxons, Kent) and York (Eoforwic) (serving the Kingdom of Northumbria).

Around 700 AD, Frisian potters from the Netherlands area settled in Ipswich and set up the first large-scale potteries in England since Roman times.

The last Carmelite Prior of Ipswich was the celebrated John Bale, author of the oldest English historical verse-drama (Kynge Johan, c. 1538).

During the Middle Ages the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was a famous pilgrimage destination, and attracted many pilgrims including Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

One of Henry VIII's closest political allies, he founded a college in the town in 1528, which was for its brief duration one of the homes of the Ipswich School.

Ipswich was also one of the main ports of embarkation for puritans leaving other East Anglian towns and villages for the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1630s and what has become known as the Great Migration.

In the mid-19th century coprolite (fossilised animal dung) was discovered; the material was mined and then dissolved in acid, the resulting mixture forming the basis of Fisons fertiliser business.

Ipswich is the largest town in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds,[48][49] and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, after Peterborough and Norwich.

[51] The waterfront is now devoted primarily to leisure use and includes extensive recent development of residential apartment blocks and a university campus.

Localities outside the town centre include Bixley Farm, Broke Hall, California, Castle Hill, Chantry, The Dales, Gainsborough, Greenwich, Maidenhall, Pinewood, Priory Heath, Racecourse, Ravenswood (built on a former airfield), Rose Hill, Rushmere, Springvale, St Margarets, Stoke, Warren Heath, Westbourne, Whitehouse and Whitton.

The younger audience was catered for with Suffolk-based Kiss 105-108, until September 2023 when its 106.4 frequency flipped over to carrying Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk.

[71] In July 2008 the Boundary Committee announced its preferred option was for a unitary authority covering Ipswich and the south eastern corner of Suffolk, including Felixstowe.

Phillips & Piper Ltd on Old Foundry Road employed many women who sewed equestrian and hunt jackets for Harrods, Pytchley, and other labels for 130 years, finally closing down in June 1982.

Some of the major players with a key presence in Ipswich include Axa, Churchill, Legal & General, LV and Willis Towers Watson.

Access to a skilled and experienced workforce has also led to the establishment of ancillary businesses serving these companies, including call centres dealing with sales and claims.

Trains are run by Greater Anglia, which operates direct services to cities including London, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Norwich and Peterborough.

Elected to the Football League in 1938,[82][83] they have a strong rivalry with Norwich City, and were the previous club of the two most successful England managers; Alf Ramsey, who was buried in the Old Cemetery in the town on his death in 1999, and Bobby Robson.

Ipswich Cardinals are an American football team, playing in the South-East Conference of BAFACL 1; the second tier of the BAFA Community Leagues.

[92] Pipers Vale Pool opened in 1937 after replacing the West End Bathing Place, which had closed in 1936 due to fears that it was polluting the River Orwell.

[98][99] Ipswich experiences an oceanic climate, like the rest of the British Isles, with a narrow range of temperature and rainfall spread evenly throughout the year.

The average July maximum of 23.2 °C (73.8 °F)[100] is the third-highest for a major settlement in the country, behind London and Colchester, illustrating the relative warmth of the area during the summer part of the year.

The weather station at Levington is even closer than East Bergholt at 5.8 miles (9.4 km) from the town centre further down the river estuary on the way to Felixstowe.

The artist Thomas Gainsborough[112] and the cartoonist "Giles" worked here, Horatio, Lord Nelson, became Steward of Ipswich, and Margaret Catchpole began her adventurous career here.

Ipswich was the birthplace in 1741 of Sarah Trimmer, née Kirby, writer and critic of children's literature and among the first to introduce pictorial material and animals and the natural world into it.

Actor and director Richard Ayoade, best known for his role as Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd, was brought up in Ipswich,[114] as was the ceramic artist Blanche Georgiana Vulliamy,[115] and the musician Nandi Bushell.

Hugh Catchpole, a noted educationist with over 60 years of association with military schools and colleges in India and Pakistan, was born in Ipswich.

[116][117] Jeremy Wade, an extreme angler known for hosting TV shows such as River Monsters and Dark Waters, was born in Ipswich.