The Watson Fothergill Walk is back! I’ve set a date for a walk in the city centre on 30 May 2021 starting at 10 am. I’ve reduced that capacity to allow for social distancing so there will be just 12 tickets available!
This is the original Watson Fothergill Walk starting at Nottingham Tourism Centre. Learn about the buildings of one of Nottingham’s most prominent Victorian architects, his signature style and the influence of the Gothic on the city’s buildings. A walk of approximately 2km (1.25 miles)
My friends at the arts organisation Primary are currently crowdfunding to improve their building, which was formerly a school, at the corner of Ilkeston Road and Seely Road, Nottingham. You can help them to improve accessibility and make their studios, galleries and community venues even better for everyone and at the same time you get to own some original artworks, experiences and other great rewards. More info in their video:
Built in 1882-3 as Ilkeston Road Board School, it is an early Nottingham example of a purpose built school from the Victorian era of compulsory elementary education. Education in Victorian Nottingham faced particular challenges, as many children were employed in the textile industries. In 1870, the Nottingham School Board was established to offer a programme of elementary education and by 1903 secondary education became available. In 1877, Basford, Lenton and Radford were subsumed into Nottingham City and so this school, which is technically in Radford, was part of that scheme.
The first wave of Nottingham Board Schools don’t follow a single style. The architects Evans and Jolley, George Thomas Hine, Albert Nelson Bromley and Abraham Harrison Goodall were all appointed by the School Board in 1881 and worked on designing schools until Bromley became the School Board’s sole consultant architect in 1891, when his rather more severe Renaissance style became dominant.
The Ilkeston Road Board School building (now Primary) was also built in Renaissance Revival style using red brick with decorative terracotta and ramped gables.
As you can see from these photos, the front of the building has been extended.
The architect for this building was Abraham Harrison Goodall (1847-1912). Born in Bradford, Goodall was articled to Richard Charles Sutton in Nottingham and was his assistant until 1874. R C Sutton is notable for the Romanesque architecture of the Congregational Church on Castle Gate (1863) which, because of its polychrome brickwork, is occasionally mistaken for the work of Watson Fothergill.
In 1874 A H Goodall moved to his own office at 14 Market Street, Nottingham.
Nottingham Journal, June 1874 (British Newspaper Archive)
Other Nottingham buildings by A H Goodall include the 1887 Poor Law Guardians Office (now the Registry Office) on Shakespeare Street. This is a lush example of Italo-French Gothic with foliage and carving, with clustered shafts (columns) at the windows.
The Poor Law Guardians Office, 1887. AH Goodall. Photo: Alan Murray Rust
Goodall was also the architect of a terracotta-clad Lace Warehouse for Boden & Co on Fletcher Gate in the 1890s.
22 Fletcher Gate, Boden & Co Warehouse now Das Kino pub. Photo: Wikimedia
1909’s Westminster Buildings, is a bold but coarse piece of Baroque Revival with a broken pediment, also by A H Goodall.
A H Goodall was also known for his work on several Methodist New Connexion Churches across the country. He built Sycamore Road School (1886) in St Anns, Nottingham. He became a Licentiate of the RIBA in 1911, a classification of membership for architects who had not taken formal examinations, he had however taken some classes at the Nottingham School of Art, and was given a prize for the design of a piano in 1868. He married Emma Sharpe in 1876, they lived at Noel Street and had at least 5 children. Their oldest son, Harry Hornby Goodall, followed his father into the architecture profession as well as being a noted cricketer who designed the Dixon memorial gates at Trent Bridge.
In 1906 AH Goodall had been in business for 31 years but following a series of “unwise speculations” and a failure to keep proper accounts he was declared bankrupt. The School Board work had now been passed to the city architect. Just the year before, in May 1905, Goodall had written to the Nottingham Journal to criticise the “unnecessary expenditure on school buildings”, he calculated that spending on furniture was almost double what it had been in his time on the job, and that “This is the principal of the very liberal basis with a vengeance… Small wonder the education rate (tax) is high.”
The Ilkeston Road Board School, which became Douglas Junior and Infant School and eventually Douglas Primary School, ceased to be a school in 2008. The school was much loved by its staff and pupils and held a special place in the local community. After a period where the building’s future was uncertain, it became Primary, which uses the old classrooms as artist’s studios and communal spaces as exhibition rooms, in 2011.
As a Grade II Listed building, changes can only be made when strictly necessary and the fabric of the building is well preserved. Some 1960s additions at the back of the building remain as well as the integral layout of the former classrooms, which lend themselves to use as artists’ studio spaces. The interior has been painted white and some false ceilings have been removed revealing the scale of the Victorian classrooms.
Primary took the decision to purchase the building from Nottingham City Council in 2020 and with their crowdfunding campaign the plan is to make the building more fit for its current purpose, improving sustainability and providing level access so that it can remain a useful asset to the local community. Toilets will be improved and the open space in the former playground and rear garden will be developed.
Exhibitions in the building are regularly open to the public. The ‘Making Place’ Exhibition is open 21 May – 3 July, 2021. It reflects Primary’s long term community programme, which looks at how we all interact with Nottingham’s varied local history.
Making Place Exhibition being re-installed at Primary. Photos: Lucy Brouwer
Help Primary to hit their Crowdfunding target – or even to exceed it – by signing up for one of the great rewards on offer – these include exclusive artworks, books, masterclasses, badges and walks with artists.
Find out more about Victorian Nottingham and the architects who built it by joining Lucy for one of her Watson Fothergill Walks – or Zoom talks.
The next Watson Fothergill Virtual Walk Zoom session will be on Thursday 22 April 7 pm. Tickets are £5 with a small booking fee (and you only need one ticket per household/device).
I’m hoping to get full scale “real life” walks going again this summer, when restrictions on social distancing will hopefully be relaxed… Meanwhile until then, private walks for small groups can be booked at times to suit your group. For more details, contact Lucy.
Walking The Carrington Crawl in 2020. Photo @bigoldhouse
While I’m really looking forward to being able to lead tours again, until at least 17 May 2021, the maximum number of people that can be accommodated on a guided walk is 6* (or groups from 2 households). The guide (me!) is NOT included in that number.
While social distancing remains in place, 8 people (from 2 households) is the maximum group size that can be accommodated. If you’d like to organise a private walk then please contact Lucy to pick a date.
The more I work on Fothergill, give talks and promote my guided walks, the more contact I receive from people who want to know if the building they have spotted is the work of Watson Fothergill, architect.
Recently, I’ve been sent several photos, either houses people have spotted while on urban walks or pictures they have seen posted on social media, each with the question: Is this a Fothergill?
But is it a Fothergill? Pics from l-r, Wilford Grove/ Wilford Crescent East by Chris Pyke-Hendry, Hardwick Road by Lucy Iliffe and Lenton Boulevard spotted on Facebook (originally from Picture Nottingham)
I always direct people to Darren Turner’s Fothergill: A Catalogue of The Works of Watson Fothergill, Architect, an extremely thorough piece of research that has been invaluable to me in putting together my tours. In the book, Darren has found evidence for every attribution he makes and the results are compelling. However, there remain a group of buildings he calls “The Awkward Squad”
Many of these dodgy attributions persist. This goes back to the over-enthusiastic obituarist in the Nottingham Journal who in 1928 laid claim to Fothergill’s distictive buildings being found in “almost every city and town between Nottingham and London.” (I’m not really sure that a bank in Loughborough, a cemetery chapel and a coffee house in Ongar and a solitary house in Sydenham really hold this to be true.)
Clip from The Nottingham Journal’s notice of Watson Fothergill’s death, 7 March 1928. Source: British Newspaper Archive.
There are also a lot of photographs that originate from Nottingham’s council archive, many now online at Picture Nottingham, that are labeled as being buildings by Watson Fothergill. A great many of them are genuine Fothergill’s and there are some wonderful photos available, but some of them are part of “The Awkward Squad” or have even proved to be designed by different architects entirely. Several of these photos from the 1960s are credited to Mr FC Tighe.
F.C. Tighe, City Librarian (standing), with composer Eric Coates (who himself also has a connection to Fothergill!) 1953, Nottingham Evening Post. (source: Picture Nottingham)
Francis Charles Tighe was the Nottingham City Librarian (from 1953 until his death, aged 48 in 1964). In the early 1960s, Mr Tighe entered into correspondence with Brigadier George Fothergill Ellenberger, Fothergill’s oldest grandson (WW1 veteran and son of Eleanor Watson Fothergill Ellenberger and Georg Hieronymous Ellenberger – see blogs passim). Mr Tighe was preparing a lecture on Fothergill and Ellenberger sent him several family records including Fothergill’s diary. The microfilm copy held by the University of Nottingham archives still has the numbered tabs that the Brigadier added to correspond to a list of buildings “with which he may have been concerned whether as architect or renovator”.
The Brigadier typed out a ‘generous’ list of his grandfather’s works – 39 buildings, all but one of which are demonstrably by Fothergill. The problem comes from another fifty-odd projects that were handwritten onto the list. Ellenberger was not claiming them all for Fothergill but many of them have become firmly associated with the architect.*
These include, among others, several house in The Park Estate (Edale, which proves to be by Thomas Chambers Hine; Brightlands – now Adam House which was actually built for Samuel Bourne by Arthur George Marshall; and several houses on Hope Drive and Peveril Drive).
After the success of his lecture on Fothergill, Mr Tighe became a passionate Fothergill-Spotter and began to see them almost everywhere. Many of the photographs on Picture Nottingham that include the generic Watson Fothergill biography seem to originate from this period (indeed many are credited to Mr Tighe or are from what looks like the same batch marked c. 1964). This combination of attributions, and the way the keyword search on the site works, would seem to be responsible for the proliferation of these images to various social media platforms.
Indeed, I have found buildings by Fothergill’s assistant, L.G. Summers in Duke Street and the corner of Cedar Road that are cited as Fothergill’s on Picture Nottingham and other buildings that bear more resemblance to Summers’ later work.
As for the ones I have been sent recently – I think that the Lenton Boulevard houses (pictured above) are likely by Brewill & Baily. (See the latest Pevsner Guide To The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, p. 503) The Nottingham-based partnership of Arthur William Brewill (d.1923) and Basil Edgar Baily (1869-1942) were working in Nottingham during a similar period to Watson Fothergill, and there are bound to be some similarities in the material they used and their overall architectural influences. Other houses on Lenton Boulevard were photographed for Mr Tighe and to me, these feel like they are among some of his more wild guesses.
115 Lenton Boulevard, attributed to Fothergill but I’m very doubtful about this one. Photo: Google Street View. BUT IS IT A FOTHERGILL?
Number 115 Lenton Boulevard retains its attribution to Fothergill even in the latest Pevsner Guide. If anyone has any more information on any of these buildings, the pedant in me would like to straighten out the records!
Former Leenside Police Station, Canal Street. Photo: Lucy Brouwer NOT A FOTHERGILL!
Another Fothergill attribution that persists (due to how often photos of it are posted online) is the former Leenside Police Station on Canal Street. Despite red bricks and a turret, this is not listed in Darren Turner’s Catalogue at all. It was actually built by the City Engineer’s Department in 1901-2.
The Trent Bridge Inn. Photo: Wikimedia NOT A FOTHERGILL
The Trent Bridge Inn, another building whose shape might suggest some connection to Fothergill is in fact another ringer, having been built by William Bright (1888-90) with additions by Thomas Jenkins (1919). (Some info on The TBI and other Nottingham buildings that have become Wetherspoons pubs via Nottingham Civic Society.)
Building at corner of Wilford Crescent East. Photo: Chris Pyke-Hendry. Some features might point to L.G Summers but does anyone have any more clues? IS IT A FOTHERGILL???
The building near Meadows Library (above) photos of which were sent to me recently remains a mystery. To me it has some 1890s characteristics that might point in the direction of L.G. Summers, but as we have seen, a lot of building took place in the city around this time and there’s no evidence to substantiate who the architect might have been (not so far anyway).
Hardwick Road, photo: Lucy Iliffe
The actual Fothergill among the photos at the top of this blog (also above) is at the corner of Hardwick Road and Hartington Road, in Sherwood. Apparently some renovation is currently taking place. Built in 1890 as a villa on what was then called Cavendish Hill, for Mr Thomas Gallimore – who worked for Smith & Co Bank at the Long Eaton branch (itself designed by Fothergill). Gallimore also seems to have been a friend of L.G. Summers (Summers was present at Gallimore’s funeral in 1935). So even when we say something is a Fothergill, it shouldn’t discount the work of his chief assistant! You can see from the patterning of the bricks, the shape of the features like the windows and the chimney that this house resembles other known Fothergill’s more closely than any of Mr Tighe’s hopefuls that I’ve mentioned here.
I think what this really goes to show is that Nottingham is full of interesting buildings that are worth noticing and I hope it encourages you to go Fothergill-Spotting on urban walks! I’m still digging into the stories of the buildings that people have told me about and I’m always interested to hear from you if you live in a Watson Fothergill house or an interesting Victorian-era property that might be connected to the other architects of the period.
You can contact me HERE and sign up to the mailing list for the latest news on the return of the Watson Fothergill Walk in summer 2021.
*For more on this story, see the chapter “The Awkward Squad” in Fothergill: A Catalogue of the Works of Watson Fothergill, Architect by Darren Turner. Available from Five Leaves Books.
My talk Watson Fothergill: Nottingham’s Most Flamboyant Architect for Bromley House Library in January sold out and was the most popular Zoom talk they’ve had so far! So we’ve decided to put on a repeat performance for Library Members ONLY on 20 February 2021 at 11am.
I highly recommend becoming a member if you live in Nottingham or even if you’re a little further afield, it’s a wonderful haven in the middle of the city with a great community of people.
Photo: Lamar Francois.
The last Watson Fothergill Virtual Walk was popular beyond my wildest expectations – it very nearly sold out! If you bought a ticket, you should have received an email with a link to a video which will allow you to catch up or watch again. I’m hoping that future Zoom events will also have this facility.
Meanwhile, I’m looking at doing more Zoom talks for the public, so sign up to the mailing list to get news of dates as soon as they are announced.
Explore the highlights of the Watson Fothergill Walk with an illustrated talk on Zoom. Look at the beautiful details of some of Nottingham’s most flamboyant buildings and learn more about the architect who designed them. The next date for the Zoom “Virtual” walk is Thursday 4 February 2021 at 7 pm.
Over the last few years it has been my great pleasure to become a member of Nottingham’s hidden gem, Bromley House Library. Currently, the Library has been forced to close due to the “current situation” so their programme of local history talks has been moved online.
