NEWSLETTER no 11 October 2019

Dear Member A PLAQUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES (and a few other places too)

Last summer kept us busy with plaques: a total of five in all, showing the wide range of organisations and topics with which the Civic Society is involved.

We started with a commemoration of author, teacher and Booker Prize winner Stanley Middleton. This was unveiled at his former home in Caledon Road by his daughter, Penny Lymn Rose.

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The other house was in fact a whole estate of them. Stockhill, near Basford Hall College, was begun in October 1919, the first fruit of Lloyd George’s campaign for “Homes fit for Heroes to live in.” This anniversary, commemorating the fact that Nottingham was leading the whole country in the provision of social housing, was kept with festivities on the park opposite. The importance of the original occasion in 1919 was such that there is a foundation stone on the house in question. Above it stands the plaque, which was unveiled by Alex Norris MP.

These plaques were of course erected on private houses. But we didn’t forget public houses. And being all things to all men, having put up a plaque to Notts County, it was only right to recall Nottingham Forest. Conveniently this coincided with the relaunch of the pub on which it was to be attached. Known at various times as the Clinton Arms and the Orange Tree, it is now called The Playwright. It was where in 1865 Nottingham Forest was founded.

Hilary discoursing learnedly about football, after which the Club’s historian deftly unveiled the plaque.

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We were delighted with the way our plaque makers, Leander Architectural of Dove Holes near Buxton, were able not only to provide the coat of arms but also to come up with the exact shade of Garibaldi Red that was chosen as the Club’s colour.

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And since you ask, this is what shinty players used:

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Half a century ago the Civic Society did much to save the Lace Market from disappearing under an urban motorway. One of the people who spearheaded its regeneration was Mich Stevenson, who is seen here at the unveiling of the plaque commemorating the Birkin Building in Broadway.

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Seen here with Hilary and Mich are Mich’s daughters Becky Valentine, Chief Operating Officer (left) and Victoria Green, Chief Executive Officer (right) of Spenbeck Ltd

The building is the work of T C Hine and incorporates stonework from an earlier version of St Mary’s Church, a building Hine loved. It is well written up in the Society’s book on the Lace Market, and it has been splendidly restored and repurposed for today’s very different work environment.

Leander Architectural have given especial delight by so splendidly incorporating the bee which was the emblem of the Birkin Company.

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Black History Month began with the installation of a plaque on the Shire Hall to Eric Irons, the country’s first black JP who made many distinguished contributions to his adoptive city. The Shire Hall was chosen since it was where Eric Irons sat as a magistrate, and the chosen design greatly enhances James Gandon’s austerely elegant eighteenth-century building.

National Justice Museum senior curator & archivist Bev Baker and plaque fixer-in-chief Radek Stanczak stand either side of the newly-installed plaque

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HERITAGE WALKS 2019 by board chair Kurt Hatton.

This year’s Heritage Walks marked the 10th season of guided walks around our city. Once again it has been a very successful programme raising £1,196. My sincerest thanks go to Graham Clarke and Kevin Powell (joint walks organiser) for taking their time not only to lead these walks (often in not very pleasant weather conditions) but also for the countless hours it takes to research and prepare them.

The programme this year ran from June to early September and saw the retention of popular walks like the Park Estate, Lace Market, Georgian and Cemetery Walks as the numbers for these remains ever consistent. Other walks from previous years were also rotated into the programme to keep it a mixed variety and of course we ventured out of the city centre and took a group around Old Basford. Not only do these walks raise money for the Society, they also raise our profile within the city and give information to many residents of the city and surrounding areas on the rich history and heritage we are proud to be a part of. The popularity of these guided walks also contributes directly to encouraging new members into the Society and we are often asked by people on them to do private walks and even talks to other societies they are associated with.

Once again my thanks go to not only Graham and Kevin but also the board of trustees and all members of the Civic Society for their support and of course to all the people who attend the walks. Both Kevin and I are looking forward to organising the programme for 2020 and we look forward to hopefully seeing you on some of them.

WOLLATON HALL WALLED GARDEN

On a pleasant August evening vice president and onetime Society chairman Andrew Hamilton led a fascinating visit to the eighteenth-century Walled Garden at .

Andrew has been campaigning for a long time now to get these gardens restored and given a use, and it was good to share with members the work that had already been done, and which the Society has supported.

Here Board members Nicki Pink, Alan Marshall and Ruth Imeson are about to enter the Walled Garden through a gate which had not been opened for thirty years.

The following pictures clearly show what has been achieved and the challenges that remain.

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CASEWORK REPORT by Hilary Brindley, vice chair (planning)

APPEALS UPDATE – nine cases ALL dismissed

The Civic Society was involved either appearing at the enquiry or having registered objections to the applications

Priory Mission Hall Priory Street. The Civic Society gave evidence at the Appeal which was for redevelopment for of the site for housing. The Appeal was dismissed as the appellant had failed to demonstrate that the buried archaeology (Lenton Abbey remains) would not be damaged by the new development.

BT applied at seven separate sites for a combination of advertisement panels / telephone hubs. They were all located within the Conservation Area. All the appeals were dismissed on grounds of clutter, harm to the conservation area and impediments to pedestrians and road safety. Ironically one that was approved and built is located outside Bromley House Library where it has been entirely surrounded by scaffolding almost since the day it was commissioned! (More can be seen of the Bromley House scaffolding at the end of this newsletter)

Land to the Rear of 11 Western Terrace. This was for an infill dwelling on a garden of an original Estate House in the Park Conservation Area. Once again the appeal was dismissed as the Inspector concluded that the harm that would be done to the conservation area by the loss of the garden (and probably a substantial tree) would not be outweighed by any public benefit. This is another good decision for the workings of the Park CA Appraisal and Management Plan.

CURRENT MAJOR APPLICATIONS

TWO BUS GARAGES – HUNTINGDON STREET AND TURNEY STREET

The much-admired former bus garage on Huntingdon Street has been listed Grade 2 by Historic England. The Council is hoping to help find a new use for the building which lies in the ‘Creative Quarter’.

Nottingham City Transport applied for the partial demolition of the former Welfare Building, Stables and Substation at their Turney Street depot in the Meadows.. These are good robust early twentieth-century buildings which characterise this part of the Meadows’ transport infrastructure. Parts of the external walls would remain to continue to enclose the bus depot but their loss as complete buildings would be a pity. They could give character to a long-awaited Meadows conservation area which we proposed some twenty years ago. The application has been withdrawn: let’s hope NCT are having a re-think about the value of their buildings as complete entities.

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NOTTINGHAM STATION CAR PARK. QUEEN’S ROAD.

Here is the Civic Society’s Objection to the proposed residential development (9 storeys high) on the open car park adjacent to Platform 7.

Nottingham Civic Society objects to the height of the proposed residential development which would overwhelm the setting of the Grade II* listed immediately adjacent and dominate Queen's Road to the detriment of the Grade II listed Meadows Mill opposite and the character of the Station Conservation Area more generally. For the last century the application site has been open in character giving views out from the Station platforms across to other industrial buildings such as Meadows Mill which contribute to the character of the conservation area.

The likely impact of this tall structure upon the Station's platform buildings is not depicted in the application from ground level on the north side of the scheme, so the disparity in massing is not fully apparent. Whilst the Station Conservation Area is characterised by robust industrial buildings such as the Hicking Building and Meadows Mill, the current proposal is significantly taller at 9 storeys high to their detriment.

The Civic Society recognises that the design and architecture have been informed by the building's conservation area setting and welcomes the use of red brickwork detailing to enhance key features of the composition giving the modern building architectural references from its Victorian industrial neighbours. The height of the building should be reconsidered.

LAND ADJACENT TO 28 UNION ROAD.

The Civic Society objected to the original height of this student development; following this the development was reduced to 5 storeys. This now means that the scheme complies with the City Centre Urban Design Guide’s provisions and would be a better neighbour for the smaller domestic-scaled housing in Curzon Street on the edge of St Anns. In welcoming this change we said:

If red brick were to be used instead of the buff brickwork proposed, the Civic Society would be in full support of the design.

1 HOWARD ST AND 24 – 26 GLASSHOUSE ST.

This is for redevelopment for student accommodation (8 storeys). The inter-war building in Howard St has already been demolished unfortunately. We have objected to the demolition of the curved Victorian redbrick building in the following manner:

Nottingham Civic Society objects to the demolition and redevelopment of Nos 24 - 26 Glasshouse Street. The Victorian building still conveys distinctive character to the local area

12 which has lost many other interesting buildings to mundane later twentieth-century utilitarian development. Nos 24 - 26 Glasshouse Street represent an era where good quality brick details were deployed to create a building which celebrated its prominent corner location with a sweeping and eye-catching curve of the red brickwork.

The replacement building does not offer the same level of focal interest - asserting itself merely by its height (8 storeys) and incongruous pale colour - red brick is much more in keeping with Nottingham's Victorian factory traditions. The corner glazing is not curved but faceted - a disappointing feature upon which to focus architectural attention.

The bulk of the tall building tight up against the back of pavement will contribute to an unpleasant pedestrian environment - dark, windswept, noisy from heavy traffic and devoid of space for street tree planting. The intensity of the proposed development with its subsequent phases, fails to offer any public benefits in terms of improved public realm to justify the loss of local character. The scheme already approved for this site (ref 18/00669/PFUL3) retaining the corner building would represent a much more sustainable development here.

FORMER TURF TAVERN (REBRANDED AS THE HOP MERCHANT) UPPER PARLIAMENT STREET.

The proposed advertising was insensitive to which we Objected. (I’m pleased to say that following the objection below the scheme has since been amended to remove the offending heat applied red triangle and the rest of the scheme has since been granted consent).

The pub itself is recognised as having architectural merit and was designed by a renowned local architectural practice WB Starr and Hall. The building is on the Local List because of its dignified neo-classical design and the craftsmanship of its faience frontage. Over the entrance there is a finely crafted scrolled medallion rendered in faience. The application advert would disfigure this feature by sticking the apex of a red triangle over part of this sculpture to the great detriment to the building's appearance. In such a prominent location this attack on the architectural integrity of the building would also damage the character, appearance and amenity of the Old Market Square Conservation Area contrary to local plan policy. This application should be refused.

LAND SOUTH OF CROCUS PLACE

This large office block has been granted permission adding to the bulky buildings crowding around the Station.

THE LODGE MAPPERLEY HOSPITAL THE WELLS ROAD

The application to demolish has been refused – it is to be hoped that the building is now restored as a dwelling.

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CÉSAR PELLI 1926-2019

Mention of new city architecture reminds us of an architect who well knew how to transform urban spaces, César Pelli. Remembered in London for Canary Wharf, it perhaps comes as a surprise to learn that the inspiration for this structure was Pugin’s Elizabeth Tower (as it is now known) at the Houses of Parliament with its pyramidal top (and of course its accommodation for Big Ben). With an international career, he said that he always sought to capture the spirit of wherever he was working, complaining that “Many architects will go to other countries and design an American building, and I believe that is a mistake. One needs to respect the country . . . otherwise all our cities end up looking the same.” ’Nuff said!

KERRY DOWNES 1930-2019

A less likely advocate for modern architecture was Professor Kerry Downes, who was very enthusiastic about the Mies van der Rohe tower which was controversially proposed in the mid-1980s to go next door to London’s eighteenth-century Mansion House. Downes, like his father, the eminent organist Ralph Downes, was a great enthusiast for the Baroque (organs in one case, architecture in the other) when it was far from fashionable. Kerry Downes made his name with a pioneering study of the Nottinghamshire-born architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, which had the effect of saving Hawksmoor’s Christ Church Spitalfields from destruction. Hawksmoor was a pupil of Wren, about whom Downes also wrote, and it would seem that Hawksmoor had a pivotal role in the design of the later stages of Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral; and of course it was Hawksmoor who did what are probably the most distinctive features of Westminster Abbey, the two towers at its west end, of 1745.

CANAL STREET Vice President Alan Bates writes about two important restored buildings

Redmayne & Todd The best-known occupants of Gilbert Smith Doughty’s City Buildings in Carrington Street - and the ones who were there the longest - were Redmayne & Todd, sports outfitters and sellers of sports equipment and toys, one of Nottingham’s best-known retailers and for a long time one of the largest independent sports stores in the UK outside London.

Young Leonard Redmayne, a tramway engineer, set up The Athletic Sporting Association (1903) Ltd and moved into one unit of the building. After a shaky start he teamed up with accountant F J Todd, who brought financial know-how and stability, even enough success to allow a move in 1910 to the corner site under the (ever-clockless) clock tower (it is at long last about to get one. Ed.). Here they became a fixture for more than 80 years, the first port of call for Nottingham sportsmen and women, amateur and professional, who knew they would get good advice and service from the knowledgeable staff.

Everyone in Nottingham knew ‘Redmaynes’ and where to find them. People tended not to use Mr Todd’s name when referring to the business - ironic, because he was a mainstay for many years, even postponing retirement at the outbreak of war in 1939 to ensure stability in difficult times and to mastermind expansion in the post-war years. (He died in 1950.)

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Leonard’s son Martin joined the firm in 1933. He later became Chairman, but was happy to leave management to others as he embarked upon a career in politics. Elected Conservative MP for Rushcliffe in 1950, he was appointed Government Whip in 1951, Chief Whip from 1959 to 1964, then Shadow Postmaster-General. He became Lord Redmayne in 1966 after leaving the Commons and died in 1983. Still involved as Governing Director in 1953, he announced that the directors had decided to celebrate the firm’s half-century by offering every employee an extra week’s wages. In 1956, in an article in the Journal of the Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce, he told the story of the family firm, duly paying tribute to Mr Todd and other loyal employees (in particular a Mr Norris), and quoting these immortal lines from the cover of the 1937 Christmas catalogue:

This list can never hope to be The sum of all that you may see Upon our many floors. For Todd, a most industr’us fella Has filled the shop from roof to cellar, And bursting through the doors; And Redmayne never sleeps a wink But stays awake to think and think, To beat the London stores. Three floors of Sport and Games and Toys , For old girls, young girls, men and boys, Redmayne and Todd is yours!

The business thrived throughout the Sixties and Seventies, and in 1983 former England football captain Kevin Keegan was in Nottingham to reopen the store after a £20,000 refit. Other branches were opened, but success did not last. In May 2001 the Nottingham Evening Post reported that Redmayne & Todd were to cease trading.

Occupants of City Buildings were many and varied. In 1919 the Boots Institute was established in rooms above Redmaynes, but as that company’s employees increased in number the Institute moved to the Boots shop near . Renamed the Boots Social Club, it took over the entire premises when the shop closed in 1979 and remained in occupation until 2010, when the building was sold. Albert Nelson Bromley's saleshop and cafe for Jesse Boot became the Embankment pub.

This would be quite a view from City Buildings – but not for long

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Proof were it needed that city-centre office blocks can retain original features, and that these are actually recognised as attractions and selling points.

GORDON HOUSE, CARRINGTON STREET Some of the information in this piece was included in the article A Collin Street Curiosity, published in Civic Society Newsletter 159 (January 2016)

Readers of the trade publication Commercial Motor were informed in the issue of 24 January 1928 of an interesting development in Nottingham: “A notable addition to Nottingham’s new buildings has been made by the recent opening of a finely designed structure which has been erected not far from the Midland Railway Station in Carrington Street as motor

16 showrooms for a well-known local concern T Shipside Ltd of Daybrook. The premises, which present an imposing appearance, are claimed to be the biggest motor showroom in the Midlands, for they cover nearly half an acre of ground and afford space for the display of a great variety of vehicles, amongst which Morris commercial models are conspicuous.”

This of course is the grand building on the west side of Carrington Street towards Collin Street, named Gordon House on the plans and known by that name for many years, although it is most often referred to these days as the Bhatia Best building, after its principal occupant. The architectural drawings in the County Archives are signed by George Gordon Hardy, proprietor of the well-known furniture store G Hardy and Sons, whose timbered and turreted premises, imposing in their own way but long ago demolished, stood on the opposite side of Carrington Street, on the corner with Canal Street. Hardy, who had an interest in property development and seems to have been something of an amateur architect, also designed the grade 2 listed Richmond House (1930), not far away at the junction of Canal Street and Greyfriar Gate. Later on, he was prime mover with architect Percy Gill of the project, completed in 1934, to build a permanent headquarters (St Luke’s House) for the Nottingham Society of Artists at the top end of Friar Lane.

The Nottingham Journal had already (28 March 1927) published a report on the first phase of the Shipside project: “ The new building - or rather the portion already built - is partitioned at the centre; the showroom portion having a seventy foot frontage to Collin Street, the other section, which is a service depot, being approached from Melville Street, along which the building runs 130 feet. When completed, the showroom will be extended up to Carrington Street, where it will have a fine 80 foot frontage, smartly laid out. The new service will be a boon to Morris owners.”

This report makes clear that Shipside’s first showroom on the site was round the corner in Collin Street, in a building which, lately occupied by Big City Tyres and currently home to MCS (motor cycles and scooters), was singled out in a 2016 publication by English Heritage (now Historic England) as a 'particularly original specimen' of a design for repair and maintenance garages that was 'ubiquitous' until the early 1930s.

Shipsides was one of a number of well-known car dealers and repairers in Nottingham. In later years they became linked with other manufacturers - already in 1928 they were promoting Chryslers - and opened prestigious showrooms in the modern style in Parliament Street in November 1936. Gordon House has had many and varied occupants since 1928. For some time it housed the offices of HM Inspector of Taxes, then those of a prominent firm of solicitors (Bhatia Best, still there.) On the ground floor to the right of the main entrance there was even a pub for a number of years - the King John, a favourite haunt of Forest players of the Brian Clough era, though somewhat rough and ready in its latter days, according to posts on web forums used by Nottinghamians nostalgic for the good old/bad old days. The HE publication quoted is entitled Buildings and Infrastructure for the Motor Car from a series entitled Introductions to Heritage Assets. Available on the Historic England website.

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Below: Petrol station and garage by A N Bromley for Anglo-American Oil Co 1923, from City Buildings

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Previous page: Cllr Linda Woodings, Nigel Turpin and City conservation officer Tom Street atop the scaffolding on Gordon House. Behind them (wearing Hilary’s hard hat and his own beard) is Ian. (Photo reproduced by courtesy of Nottingham Post)

Two very prominent details are shown, and left is the girder construction employed; at exactly the same time this method of construction was being employed in the Council House.

On the right is seen part of a pre-cast column bearing the date 1927.

Below is another detail of Gordon House, not normally seen from this upside-down location.

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AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE ROOF . . . Bromley House

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BromleyMore on Carrington Street: The Gresham and Portland Temperance Hotels

This article by Alan Bates, like that on Gilbert Smith Doughty included in Newsletter No 9, is the fruit of research carried out in connexion with the Carrington Street townscape project.

On the east side of Carrington Street, at either end of Carrington Street Bridge, are two prominent former hotel buildings (rooms above, shops below): the Gresham (completed 1899) by William Dymock Pratt, architect of several other commercial buildings in the area; and the Portland, also of the late C19, architect unknown. They were conceived as temperance hotels at a time when the temperance movement, launched in the middle of the C19, was still influential and when a local businessman would be well aware of the commercial possibilities of opening such premises in the vicinity of a busy railway station.

Such a man was George Hicking, already active in the commercial life of the street since his resignation from the post of stationmaster of the Midland Railway Station. Though his main business before he entered the lace trade was in wines and spirits, he was also involved in the production and sales of soft drinks. Both of these hotels and the Granby in Station Street were established by the Hicking family.

The Gresham and the Portland had been open for a couple of years when the 1901 Census washeld. The results offer an interesting snapshot of Nottingham at the start of the C20. So who spent census night 1901 (3 April) at the Gresham? Firstly the hotel keeper Mary Clarke, a widow, and her family: two daughters, a sister-in-law employed as a waitress, and an aged cousin. Apart from family members, the live-in staff numbered four: a boots, a porter, achambermaid and a waitress. The guests were all male: a commercial traveller (naturally), a general commission agent, a sales agent, a stationer, a cigar manufacturer’s clerk. Professional men too: an architect, a chartered accountant, a chemist. Representing a modern age of technological progress were a civil engineer, an electrical engineer, a mining engineer.

From abroad, men for whom Nottingham, granted city status by Queen Victoria only four years earlier, was an important business destination: a Dutchman in the lace trade, a French employer in the hosiery trade, and two Germans, one of whom described himself as a ‘foreign correspondent.’ The remaining guests would appear to have little in common, but might have learned a lot from each other had they sat down together over a cup of tea or glass of lemonade in the hotel lounge: a fine art dealer, a professor of physical culture and a Collector of Inland Revenue - or did the latter sit alone?

At the Portland, there were thirteen live-in staff in addition to hotel keeper Jessie McCulloch; they actually outnumbered the guests on census night. These were a six-year-old boy and his governess, two Austrians (a manufacturer and a merchant), an incorporated accountant, a corn merchant, a commercial traveller, a solicitor and a trainer of horses. Also, Gilbert Smith Doughty and his wife. Doughty was of course the architect of City Buildings opposite, Perhaps there were minor works to supervise as the building, completed in 1897, received its latest tenants.

There is however a sadder and more convincing reason for Doughty’s residence in a temperance hotel. Eight years later, at the inquest into his death in Chiswick, Mrs Doughty would testify that her husband had long been a heavy drinker and that he had spent time 'in a home' the previous year. After hearing this evidence and the accounts of various witnesses of the events of the fateful night, the coroner would direct the jury to find that alcoholism had indeed led to Doughty's early death. (For further details see article mentioned above.)

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MRS DAY`S SLIDES OF SNEINTON AND NOTTINGHAM by Tom Huggon

For many years Mrs. Anne Day (1926-2002) and her husband Harry kept a bakery and shop on Sneinton Road until they moved away. Anne was a well-known and popular member of the local community until her death, involved in many local societies, and also St Stephen`s Church and its school. She was also an enthusiastic supporter of the restoration of Green’s Mill.

One of her many interests was local history which manifested itself in her accumulation of 790 slides of photographs and picture postcards: mostly of Sneinton; the rest of Nottingham. These range over many centuries and a wide range of subjects; and so are a valuable reference library. Anne used these as illustrations for her talks about all sorts of historic and social subjects. Unsurprisingly there are plenty of the Mill.

For example I used them once myself when I stood in for her to talk to the D H Lawrence Society at Eastwood about David Herbert`s family in Sneinton: where they lived, who they were and the Sneinton he would have known and regularly visited.

When Anne died these were inherited by Nottingham Civic Society who passed them to us for safe keeping. They were carefully catalogued by our friend and supporter Stephen Best who looked after them until recently.

They are now back at the Mill and have been digitalised by two students, Callum Gladwyn and Georgia Scott from Nottingham Trent University. The collection has always been available for use. Now it is digitised and so more accessible on disc or memory stick. Please contact us at the Mill if you would like to use them. There is an excellent spreadsheet list of them. Our next step is to create a dedicated web site for them so that they can be downloaded anywhere.

Our thanks to Stephen, Callum and Georgia: and to Anne Day who I know would be pleased that her love of local history is being passed on. Here are a few of her slides:

AD379 Sneinton Market AD645 GN Railway Parcels Van 1910

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AD159 Prince of Wales Visit to Boot`s 1923 AD648 Horse Drawn Baker`s Van 1912

AD001 National Laundry Office 98 Sneinton Road 1920

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AD 259 Ann Day (on the right as we look) at baker`s shop 102 Sneinton Road 1958

LECTURES FROM OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 2019

These all take place at 7:30 pm in the Nottingham Mechanics on North Sherwood Street.

Tuesday 15 October Elain Harwood The Keith Train lecture in conjunction with the Thoroton Society “Art Deco Architecture in Britain” The lecture will look a little at American influences, the impact of the 1925 Paris exhibition, and at streamlined modern and the influence of Willem Dudok on architecture between the wars. It ties in with a book on the subject by Dr Harwood.

Tuesday 19 November David Longford “The Show Goes On . . . ” David Longford of the Theatre Royal describes the work and discoveries of the theatre’s Heritage Lottery-funded Archive project.

Tuesday 17 December

An evening of Elizabethan dance, words and music with a Christmas theme.

Best wishes Hilary Silvester Ian Wells [email protected] [email protected]

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