Observant Nottinghamians will have noticed some changes taking place in one of the city’s largest Fothergill buildings recently. The sports bar chain Box has moved into the Former Nottingham & Notts Bank (lately All Saints and before that Nat West) on the corner of Pelham Street and Thurland Street.
Picture of how the Thurland Street Nottingham and Notts Bank looked circa 1898 from The Builder (found at archive.org) Building was completed 1882 – “Fothergill Watson” carved beneath the date stone as this predates his 1892 name change.
Thurland Street Bank, November 2023. Note how the chimneys have changed over the years (there is one fancy one left at the back of the building). Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I’ve waited a long time to get inside parts of this building and my ambition to have a look at the stained glass upstairs was finally realised as the bar opened to the public last week. Thanks to the friendly staff for letting me have a look around. The building has been developed with strict rules about how the listed interior can be used, so hopefully the fabric of this fantastic example of Fothergill’s work will survive this regeneration for use as a party venue!
I’ll hopefully get time to do a more thorough post on the history of the building soon but meanwhile here are some photos of the stained glass, which is in a part of the building that is not open to the public.
The oriel window features Chaucer and Shakespeare. The motto: Tolle Lege “Take up and read”. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Fothergill has form with Chaucer – inside his office, there is a carved quotation:
“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, Th’assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge”.
Fothergill was also fond of a religious quotation “Tolle lege” are the words spoken to St Augustine during his conversion to Christianity…
Chaucer – was one of the authors revered and published by William Morris also an inspiration to Watson Fothergill? Photo: Lucy Brouwer
William Shakespeare – recognisable even from outside when back to front! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
From the outside this window looks like it was once on a staircase, that is long gone like the rest of the interior decoration upstairs, but the quality of the work shines through. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The female figures on this window represent Art, Science, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufacture and Mining. This chimes with the frieze on the exterior that represents the three major industries of Nottinghamshire in the 1880s – Agriculture, Textiles and Mining. The quotation underneath is:
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. For there is no work nor device for knowledge nor wisdom in the grave wither thou goest. The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 verses 10 & 11, King James Bible Version
I’d love to track down evidence of the artist who designed this stained glass, so if anyone has any leads please get in touch!
A first attempt at video so forgive the portrait mode!
I was up in Mapperley giving my talk on Watson Fothergill and his architecture to a large gathering of U3A members, on the way back into town I took the opportunity to go inside a Fothergill building I have been meaning to visit for ages… Woodborough Road Baptist Church.
View from Woodborough Road. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Woodborough Road Baptist Church is dated 1894 and opened in February 1895.
There had been a temporary iron chapel on the site since about 1875 and money was raised to commission a building to house the increasing number of worshipers.
On 20th June 1894 the memorial stones were laid, the first by Miss Bayley. Inside was a bottle containing “a copy of each of the Nottingham daily papers, copies of Baptist publications, a statement of the present number of members, scholars and teachers, the names of the contractors and the name of the architect.”
“The builders were Messrs Fish and Co with Mr Kennedy as Clerk of the Works, the architect was Mr W Fothergill of Clinton Street.”
Schools entrance and memorial stone laid by Miss Bayley. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The old classrooms were preserved and the new chapel was to be 109ft long and 49ft wide. Built in red brick with Derbyshire stone facings with a clock tower planned to be 90ft tall it would “greatly improve the appearance of the neighbourhood”
The Rev. G. Howard James (who was president of the Nottingham Sunday School Movement) gave a toast at the luncheon to celebrate the commencement of works, hoping that “…in coming years they would find it more and more a spiritual success, and a joy to Nottingham people of many succeeding generations.”
View from Alfred Street Central. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
On 5th February 1895, the opening service was conducted by Rev. Dr R Glover of Bristol. The total cost of work had been £5,000 (exceeding the original estimate of £4,500). Mr W. Fothergill, now of George Street had provided plans for “a commanding structure. and an undoubted ornament to the town.”
With a “nave of 7 bays, aisles of slightly unequal width, iron columns, a semi-circular arcade and clerestories. At one end a many sided polygon and at the other a semi-octagon, chorister and platform. There was room for 284 in the gallery and 930 seated downstairs. The interior was “rather unconventional in treatment, attractive, well-lighted and comfortably heated”. The tower was by now 100ft and octagonal in shape with red brick, blue brick and Derbyshire stone dressing and rock-faced plinth with terracotta bands. A lobby connected the two entrances and there were five new classrooms to compliments the three old ones.
Interior of Woodborough Road Baptist Church, now Pakistani Centre. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The building is now home to the Pakistani Centre which provides an Older Persons Day Car Service, a community restaurant and space for prayer.
Iron Columns, arches, Clerestory and gallery. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The school rooms below are home to Switch Up and the Nottingham School of Boxing who provide support for local young people. It seems these endeavours are not so different from the building’s original purpose – non-conformist worship and “the elevation of their fellow men”.
Veggie curry lunch! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
It was lunchtime when I visited so I ordered the vegetarian lunch and stayed for a look around. The community restaurant serves a lunch for £5-£6 curry, rice and chapati every weekday between 12 noon and 2 pm. Filling!
The building is grade II listed and up-close it has many distinctive features that are recognisable form other Fothergill buildings of the period. The leaded glass, the polychrome brickwork and stone dressings in particular stand out.
The cast-iron columns, arches, clerestory and vault. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Rear view of Woodborough Road Baptist Church. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Date stone over the entrance. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Woodborough Road view. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
According to Darren Turner’s Fothergill Catalogue, the church was one of the buildings for which Fothergill commissioned photographs from Bedford Lemere & Co, the architectural photographers. The pictures are now lost but are recorded in the daybook for 1897. I have been unable to find any photographs of the interior when it was in use as a church. If anyone has any leads or memories of the building then please contact me.
Learn more about Watson Fothergill, an architect who had a major impact on the look of Victorian Nottingham, by joining my guided tour, The Watson Fothergill Walk. The next date is 8 May, 2022 starting at 10 am, tickets here.
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to be invited to explore Fothergill buildings. The latest of these was The Red House, on Cator Lane, Chilwell.
From the road, The Red House has a distinctive chimney that stands out from the surrounding buildings… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The Red House is listed in the Fothergill Catalogue as a “Minor Work”, as it was not originally built by the architect. However, the additions he made to the property are quite extensive.
With its very tall chimney and red bricks, The Red House stands out amid the 1930s suburban semis that make up the rest of the street. Indeed, for a long time the original house (then called Hill House) was the only building on this part of Cator Lane, it is visible on maps from around 1850 – it may have been built even earlier, around 1840 from the style of the windows in the original parts of the house.
The Red House from the back, which is now the front.. the porch is a modern addition. Photo: Lucy BrouwerThe “front” of The Red House, Fothergill’s extension includes the porch and landing above, the large bays over two floors, bay windows added to the original rooms and possibly the attic rooms. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The plans for Fothergill’s alterations were submitted in October 1895, approved in November and presumably carried out shortly after. The extension is shown on the 1900 OS map of the area. After the work, the house is called “The Red House” on maps and it is apparently the only substantial dwelling on Cator Lane until about 1930. I’ve found advertisements in newspapers from 1933 offering houses for sale (for £550 per house) on The Red House Estate on Cator Lane, most of the houses nearby look as if they were built around this date.
1933 advert in The Long Eaton Advertiser for The Red House Estate
Ian, the present owner of The Red House, gave me a tour and told me what he knows about the history of the building.
The house had been a parsonage and the client for the extension work was Frederic Chatfield Smith (1824-1905) of Bramcote Hall, at one time an MP for the area and the head of Smiths Bank in Nottingham. However, Smith did not live in the house.
There is a plaque commemorating Smith in the nearby Christ Church in Chilwell, he endowed the church but this wasn’t until 1903. He was known for his charitable work as his obituary in Nottingham Evening Post, 22 April 1905 notes:
“He manifested a warm interest in religious and philanthropic work, being an ever-generous subscriber to charitable and other institutions. He was a patron of the living of Bramcote with Attenborough, and he exercised discriminating influence in church matters.”
So did Frederick Chatfield Smith extend the house to encourage a new vicar to move to Chilwell? It seems that after the improvements the house remained as a small farm, with a quantity of pasture land and some animals. Ian has an advertisement that describes the house when it was offered for auction in the 1920s.
Auction notice for the house from circa 1921-22. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I’ve found that in 1864, the house had been lived in by the then late Joseph Morris – cited in a marriage announcement for his sixth daughter Pattie.
In 1889, the householder was The Rev. James Crabtree – so it was presumably still a parsonage at this point.
After the extension was added, I’ve found a few of the residents and some information:
Around 1898-1899 G.W. Baxter, his wife, son and daughters can be found at the house. Baxter and family rode with the Earl of Harrington’s hunt in 1898, and in April 1899 GW Baxter could be found selling a horse at the Black Boy Repository (behind the hotel?) in Nottingham. In November 1899, both he and his servants donated to the Shilling Fund.
Brigadier General Charles Tyrell Shipley CB (1863-1933) was another resident of the Red House. I’ve found a couple of photographs of him: here in uniform and here as a younger man, and something of his war record, he seems to have had an illustrious military career, commanding the 46th North Midlands Division and according to his obituary in the Nottingham Evening Post (13 Nov 1933) he lived at The Red House “before the war” (WW1).
Newspaper classified ads are another way of discovering who lived in a house. Between 1915-1918, the Barnett family various posted notices for the sale of a Great Dane puppy, an appeal to find their lost Airedale bitch, Jessie, and a “wanted ad” for a Daily Help or a good cook-general.
In both September 1919 and December 1921 the house was part of a selection of properties and land up for auction (in 1921 the tenant was cited as Mr W. Lucas). I believe the poster Ian showed me (pictured above) is from around this time.
23 Jan 1926, Nottingham Evening Post. (British Newspaper Archive). More Pigs For Sale from the Harrisons at The Red House.
Between 1923 and 1933 Kennedy William Harrison and his family were resident in the house – for several years running they annually offer for sale a litter of pigs (there was a pigsty outside the house, which is still recognisable among the outbuildings) as well as a litter of retriever puppies and “50 second season fowls in full lay” (Present owner Ian’s lockdown project was to install a small coop with hens!).
There are also reports of Mrs Harrison being involved in a motor bus accident in 1923 when a Barton Bros bus ran into a telegraph pole in Beeston. Despite being a “victim of the mishap” Mrs Harrison was “progressing satisfactorily” at the time of the report in the Beeston Gazette and Echo (6 October 1923). A company, Harrison and Hill Ltd, was formed in 1932, with Mr Harrison going into business with a certain Miss Gwendoline Hill in a firm of manufacturers and dealers of clothing and wearing apparel.
Between around 1933 and 1936, The Red House Estate was being developed on surrounding land off the newly created Brookland Drive. The builder Cecil C. Blythe advertises houses in local papers with tag lines including, “Have you visited The Red House Estate, Cator Lane? If not, why not?” the houses were “modern and labour saving” (Beeston Gazette and Echo, 4 Nov 1933). All these nuggets were found using the British Newspaper Archive.
Fothergill’s extension to The Red House. Photo: Lucy BrouwerFothergill’s extension protrudes from the square plan of the original house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Ian was keen to point out that The Red House exhibits some characteristics that bring to mind the Arts & Crafts movement – Fothergill’s attention to detail, fondness for decorative elements and good quality materials suggest at least a knowledge of William Morris and his Red House – now a National Trust property in Bexleyheath, on the outskirts of London. But “The Red House” is a common name for properties that are this colour – Fothergill’s fondness for the distinctive Mapperley Bricks might just as well be the origin of the name.
Characteristic Fothergill additions – leaded windows, decorative brickwork, nogging and a hint of polychrome. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chimney towers above the rest of the house, note Fothergill’s use of English Garden Wall bond for the brickwork. Photo: Lucy Brouwer.
Inside the house, there are some quirks of design like the decorative coving in the Fothergill drawing room, and a door that has a frame at an angle to accommodate the staircase. Fothergill appears to have moved the stairs from what was the front of the house to the back (except this is now used as the front!). It was hard to photograph and it would be useful to have the plans – if anyone with knowledge of Chilwell history knows where they might be, then please let us know!
The hall, where the original exterior wall and door have been moved to create the extension. The arch shows where the exterior wall originally stood. The unusual plasterwork panelling in the hall (which also goes upstairs) seems to be part of the work done when Fothergill extended the house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Tricky to see in a photo, but this door frame is angled so that it can fit behind the stairs…never seen one like it before! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chamfered corners in the living room are echoed in all the interiors that are part of Fothergill’s extension. Similar details exist in other houses he worked on. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Some details on the porch, which was originally the front door. A buttress, cut out patterns in the wood and brick nogging above, all features familiar from other Fothergill buildings in Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Huge thanks to Ian Paul for inviting me to look at his house!
If you live in a Fothergill building, or if you have a house whose history you’d like to explore, then Lucy might be able to help with research – please fill in the form on the contact page to send a message. Tours will be back in 2022!
One of the great things about doing The Watson Fothergill Walk is that people sometimes invite me to explore inside the buildings…
I was lucky enough to be contacted by Jonathan from Woodlands, who looks after the building at Queen’s Chambers, it was a rare opportunity to take a look inside some of the flats while they were between occupants.
I didn’t get to go inside Flat 1 as it is presently occupied, but there is a virtual tour here (this is the only one of the flats that has wood panelling still extant.) However, I did get to look inside several of the other flats, including Flat 2 which has just been let (photos still available here).
All the flats I looked at were spacious and surprisingly quiet. Each has been kept as close as possible to the original layout and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the original building remained.
Queen’s Chambers, which stands on the corner of Long Row and King Street where it opens out onto the Market Square, was commenced in 1896 and seems to have passed inspection in 1899. The date stone reads 1897, as the building was named to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 60th Jubilee – indeed there is a bust of Her Majesty just beneath the chimney on the King Street elevation.
Plans for the Queen Street elevation of Queen’s Chambers (courtesy Woodlands).
The building was commissioned as “four sale shops with offices and workrooms over” for Mr Edward Skipwith Esquire, of EW Skipwith, Wine and Spirit Merchants. I had, up to this point, assumed that Skipwith was still trading as a Wine and Spirit Merchant in the new building but further research leads me to make the assumption that it was built as a retirement investment, as suites of offices to be rented out.
Indeed, in 1899 Fothergill was advertising “Suites of Offices or Single Rooms to be Let”.
Nottingham Journal, 17 Feb 1899 (British Newspaper Archive).
Taking me around the building, Jonathan was keen to point out lots of details. From the coal cellar (now part of the White Rose charity shop) through the building, past the “Porter’s Lodge” (a concierge booth by the entrance), up the impressive central stairs to the flats and the tower at the top. (That involved a rather hair-raising climb up a pull-down ladder over the stairwell into the top room that just has windows for the view!). Here are some photos that I took inside:
I was particularly impressed by all the original windows and glass that remains in the building.
Huge thanks to Jonathan for showing me around and being so keen to share what he knows about the building.
You can learn more about the architecture of Watson Fothergill and the history of his buildings on the Watson Fothergill Walk, more dates coming soon!
For a while now I’ve been working on a walk to look at some of Watson Fothergill’s domestic archtecture, and I’m happy to say that The Ukrainian Cultural Centre at Clawson Lodge have invited me to bring the new tour to their building on Mansfield Road, Nottingham.
A chance to go inside Clawson Lodge, a house designed by Fothergill on Mansfield Road.
Presenting The Carrington Crawl: a look at houses by Fothergill and his chief assistant Lawrence G. Summers in Mapperley Park, Sherwood Rise and Carrington, finishing with a chance to visit Clawson Lodge, where tea and coffee will be served.
The first of these new walks will take place on 4 April 2020, starting at 1pm.
A NEW WALK FOR 2020 from the producer of the Watson Fothergill Walk and the Hine Hike.
The Carrington Crawl: Victorian
Nottingham’s most flamboyant architect not only helped shape the city centre
with commercial landmarks, he also designed dwellings. Explore some of the
domestic architecture of Watson Fothergill and his assistant Lawrence G.
Summers with tour guide Lucy Brouwer. Discover more about the buildings, those
who built them, and the lives of the people who lived in them.
This walk will begin at the junction of Mansfield Road and Mapperley Road, outside St Andrew’s Church, it will then look at some of Fothergill’s houses in Mapperley Park, including the site of his own family home, continuing to Sherwood Rise, then return to Carrington to finish, after a walk of approximately 2 hours / 3km, at Clawson Lodge on Mansfield Road, where tea and coffee will be available.
Participants are asked to come prepared
for appropriate weather eventualities and to wear footwear suitable for city
walking.
Meet for 1pm start on Mapperley Road near the junction with Mansfield Road, outside St Andrew’s Church, Nottingham.
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited.
Thanks to Alec Frusher (a keen Nottingham food blogger who follows me on Twitter, and who just happens to work in one of the largest Watson Fothergill buildings in the city) I was able go inside the building on King Street now known as Fothergill House. It was built as a Department Store for Jessop & Son circa 1895.
The Jessops building has 7 floors and a tower and I was going as close to the top as I could! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Some changable summer weather struck just as I arrived to meet Alec to explore the floors at the top of the buildings but we pressed on and I took a few photos as we went.
This part of the building is now called Fothergill House in honour of its architect. Photo: Lucy Brouwer Photo: Lucy Brouwer
At the firm where Alec works they have meeting rooms with appropriate names. (They’ve also commemorated Zebedee Jessop, one of the founders of the Store.)
Through a locked door to the disused upper levels… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
We went up two flights of stairs to access the rooms that now hold tanks and heating. I think originally they were part of the staff accomodation.
The upper rooms were in a bit of a state, but some of the features had been uncovered… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The paint was peeling off, strip lights had been added and it was a bit dusty. There were some exploratory holes in the walls in places, but otherwise the structure looked in decent shape.
It became apparent that the view from the windows would be pretty impressive, even on a misty wet day. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
There seemed to be original leaded windows on each side, and lots of strudy woodwork to support the structure.
And so it proved. Across the gable roofline of the rest of the building with characteristically large Fothergill chimneys. You can see the corner of the old Elite Cinema (in white). Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Some of the views of Nottingham are blocked by more recent buildings, but you can imagine that the view from here (and from the tower itself) was very impressive when this was built in 1895 – it would have been one of the tallest structures around.
A pretty special view of Queens Chambers (King Street’s other Fothergill) and Nottingham rooftops even on such a murky day! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Queens Chambers shares some of the features of Fothergill’s late 1890s Vernacular Style with Jessops and was the next building he built.
This unprepossessing step ladder led up inside the tower, I wasn’t allowed to step inside but I managed to see the rafters… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
We kept going up so I could have a look inside the tower. We didn’t dare go inside it, but I could see that there was a viewing platform at the very top. Was it just built for the view or did it ever have another purpose?
Up inside the tower, you can see the woodwork, the windows and the brick patterning. All looking fairly solid. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I imagine that the rafters and timbers here are a larger version of the kind of craftsmanship that Fothergill had built into the turrets on his other buildings.
Alec was saving the best bit for last… through this door to the roof. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
After a look around inside, we braved the rain to have a look out on the roof platform. There were metal walkways, so it was very safe to explore inbetween the air-con units added to the modern offices.
We turned round to get a lesser-seen view of the tower. Photo: Lucy BrouwerAnd a view down the back of the roof (towards Parliament St.) Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Jessops was expanded to the back of the site in 1933 when the stone became part of The John Lewis Partnership. From this quick inspection, I’m not sure if the flat roof is part of that or a more recent renovation.
Great Fothergill details, even at the back of the tower. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Pleasingly the back view of the tower had all the elements of Fothergill’s style that you would expect, large chimneys, orange bricks arranged between black timbers, large dormer windows…
I was thrilled to see some of that typical Fothergill brick nogging so close up! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I love the details of brick nogging and big dormer windows, that hardly anyone will get to see.
Diagonal brickwork in the chimney. Photo: Lucy BrouwerOne for the masonry fans… Photo: Lucy BrouwerMysteriously derelict room on top of the building next door. Any ideas what it was for? Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Huge thanks to Alec for taking me up to the roof and letting me look around as well as to his firm for sparing him the time, and David on reception for showing me some of the Fothergill pictures which decorate the interior.
I found an image of Fothergill’s original plan online. The tower design was slightly altered in the finished building. The John Lewis archive has some photos of the store on their website. Jessops became part of the John Lewis Partnership in 1933, when this photo was taken. They traded on the site until moving to the Victoria Centre in 1972. (Photo: John Lewis Memory Store)The only photos I can find so far of the interior are from 1937. The man on the far left is William Dickinson, nephew of William Daft, one of the firm’s original partners. He worked for Jessops for 72 years starting in 1868 at age 16. Photo: John Lewis Memory Store.
One last Fothergill link I’ve found while digging in the British Newspaper Archives: Lawrence Summers (Fothergill’s right hand man) attended the funeral in 1919 of William Jessop (who had succeeded his father Zebedee Jessop to run the firm).
Learn more about Jessops and Watson Fothergill’s buildings in Nottingham on the next Watson Fothergill Walks in August. Tickets here.
