Category: Interview

Interview, The Park Estate

Guest Interview: Dan Simpkin, The Park Estate Instagram

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The last walk I took to look at architecture in Nottingham, before Lockdown, was around The Park Estate.

For this installment of my series of interviews with people I’ve met through doing The Watson Fothergill Walk, I talked to Dan Simpkin, who lives in The Park and is responsible for maintaining the @theparkestate Instagram account, a great source of photos and information on the history and architecture of this unique part of Nottingham.

Lucy Brouwer:            You take photos and maintain the Instagram account @theparkestate, can you briefly tell me how that came about and what you hope to achieve through sharing your knowledge of Park houses?

Dan Simpkin:            I’ve lived in The Park for over fifteen years and love the architecture, atmosphere and community. I’ve recently become a committee member of the Nottingham Park Residents’ Association (NPRA) who organise events aimed at encouraging community within the estate with the remit to look after their social media. I’ve got an interest in architecture, photography and history, and like to walk, so as I’m walking around The Park I naturally take a lot of photographs. I had the idea that Instagram might be a good addition to the NPRA communications as a way to bring attention to their underused website looking at all the pre-1918 houses in The Park.

Screen shot ofthe NPRA’s Nottingham Park Houses website. A fantastic resource for home owners and anyone interested in the architecture and history of Nottingham’s Park Estate.

I hope that the Instagram profile highlights how rich in history and architecture The Park is. In short, I’d like people to be more engaged and knowledgable about the built environment we have so close to Nottingham City Centre, and treasure it as much as I do.

LB:            Do you have a favourite house in The Park? Which one and why?

DS:            I’d say I have a few favourite houses. Not one favourite. In no particular order:

1. Hine House, 1 Castle Grove

2. 1 Duke William Mount

1 Duke William Mount, The Park Estate, Nottingham. Architect: Thomas Chambers Hine (1878-80). Photo: Dan Simpkin @theparkestate

3. Cavendish Lodge, 3 Cavendish Crescent North

4. Ellenborough, 3 South Road (This is one of the best examples of the work of Watson Fothergill in The Park. LB)

Ellenborough House, South Road, The Park Estate, Nottingham. Architect: Watson Fothergill (additions 1896-7). Photo: Dan Simpkin @theparkestate

5. 15 Park Valley

LB:            What do you enjoy about living in The Park Estate?

DS:            The feeling that you’re in a calm place when you’re less than half a mile away from Nottingham City Centre. The great architecture, landscape and light. The sense of community is also great, which you might not expect in a large city.

LB:            You’ve recently been sharing stories about notable people who have lived in The Park over the years. Do you have one of these you’d like to share?

DS: When I was lookinh into past residents’ lives, I think the stories of adversity spoke to me most: Albert Ball’s nationally mourned death, Dame Laura Knight‘s recognition in the male-dominated art world, and Justin Fashanu’s tragic life, were all stories I’d heard but not read about in detail before. To hear about these people’s lives, when they have lived within metres of where I live, really bought it home to me.

LB:            Anything else you’d like to add about things you’re working on?

DS:            Although the Instagram profile @theparkestate is predominantly my photography, I’m very much an amateur. I’m keen to feature proper photographers that see and create different types of images. I like the seasons being well represented, The Park is as nice a place in Autumn and Winter as in the Spring and Summer months, maybe more atmospheric. I’ve also got feature series in the pipeline of Park stained glass and modern Park architecture as well as a look at nature. Suggestions and contributions are always welcome though. I love hearing what people want to see and their experience of this very special area.

Many thanks to Dan for his contribution, in his “day job” Dan is Creative Director of Brand Design Agency Simpkin Burley, based in West Bridgford.

You can follow @theparkestate on Instagram or search for the history of the older houses here: Nottingham Park Houses.

Interview

Guest Interview: Lamar Francois, Photographer

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While we’re not able to get out and about as much as we’d like, I thought I’d catch up with some of the people I’ve discovered through doing my Watson Fothergill Walks. This time, I asked Photographer Lamar Francois (who is responsible for the great photos of me in action that grace this website!) – about his work, and some of his favourite Nottingham buildings.

Lucy Brouwer:            As a photographer who specialises in photographing architecture, what makes a building interesting to photograph?

Lamar Francois:            I find architecture fascinating to photograph because buildings can be admired in terms of their forms and methods of construction – which in turn is something which can be a particular trademark of a particular architect, say the use of black and deep red brickwork for many of Watson Fothergill developments.

Photo taken by Lamar during the Watson Fothergill Walk tour. Photo: Lamar Francois

Architecture is also to examine from the point of view of how buildings are designed to integrate with each other to be able to fit in with their surroundings to make a fascinating urban cityscape, and to provide useful environments for their occupants.

In general I also enjoy really digging into details as to how and why certain things are engineered the way they are – having studied maths and physics as an undergraduate and worked within science.

LB:            Do you have a favourite building in Nottingham? Which one and why?

LF: Two buildings spring to mind, which I feel, are particularly memorable:

Boots Store, Pelham Street, Nottinghm (now Zara). Photo: Lamar Francois

Albert Nelson Bromley‘s Boots flagship – now a branch of Zara on Pelham Street – the amount of ornamentation and detailing to the exterior elevation facing towards the Council House is really something to admire. I like the contrasts with the arched windows, and curved glass entrance with the straight vertical columns separating the windows above.

GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry, University of Nottingham. Photo: Lamar Francois

In terms of more modern builds, one which I really appreciate is the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory – mostly from a point of view of how it used more traditional laminated timber frames, as well as some very clever internal engineering to minimise the use of natural resources. The design also has a really distinctive and memorable form which I admire.

LB: Do you have a favourite photo that you’ve taken of a Nottingham building?

LF: My favourite image of a Nottingham building so far – probably one which I made of the new Confetti build by Allan Joyce back last year. The changeable weather conditions on the day helped highlight and contrast the form of the building against a moody sky – with sunlight highlighting it’s frontages, helped by shadows cast from buildings on the opposing side where I was photographing from.

Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Nottingham. Photo: Lamar Francois

LB: You’re working on a book of your photos. What sort of subjects can we expect to see in it?

LF: In my upcoming book From The Streets of Nottingham I’ve decided to take a broader look at the urban landscape and showcase a variety of interesting street scenes and quirky details which I’ve seen along the way. I’ve also married this a bit more with my other passion of candid photography to showcase some fascinating events which have taken place in the last couple of years.

I’ve had to pause production due to the current lockdown but I aim to get this produced and available for sale as soon as my suppliers are able to, with the book being in an advanced stage of drafting.

Many thanks to Lamar for answering my questions and letting me show off his photos! You can contact Lamar via his website or follow his Facebook page.

Interview, TC Hine

Guest Interview: Felicity Whittle, Gold Star Guides

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At the moment, we’re not able to go out at our leisure to look at Nottingham (or anywhere else for that matter), so I decided to catch up with some of the interesting people who I’ve met through doing these Watson Fothergill Walks. For this installment I talked to Felicity Whittle, of Gold Star Guides, who conducts the Nottingham Booklovers Tour and she recently launched a programme of virtual #NottGoing Out tours, including one of Nottingham’s Exchange Arcade.

Blue Badge Guide Felicity Whittle: Gold Star Guides

Lucy Brouwer:             You conduct the Nottingham Booklovers Tour, looking at writers produced by the city and the places that feature in their books. Have you found that there is a sense of place in Nottingham literature?

Felicity Whittle:             Yes, many local writers most definitely convey a sense of place and you can often follow a route through the city in their novels. There is an online Alan Sillitoe trail that imagines following the two squaddies who are out to get Arthur Seaton in ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’; it follows their progress across the city through the various places and pubs that are mentioned in the novel.

The novels of John Harvey, with his police detective Charlie Resnick, have a great sense of place, though the Nottingham he (Resnick) worked in has changed somewhat over the last couple of decades.  But Harvey includes events such as a film festival at Broadway, visiting stalls in the Vic Centre market or shops in Broadmarsh, and you get a real sense of the neighbourhoods in which his characters live, be that St Anne’s or the Park estate.

Kim Slater, who writes thrillers under the name KL Slater, has said that although she uses several different parts of the city for her novels she does sometimes move things around a bit to fit the requirements of her characters or her plots.  I’m sure she’s not alone amongst writers in doing this!

LB:              Do you have a favourite building in Nottingham? Which one and why?

FW:            The Council House. I’ve recently become a volunteer tour guide there so have learned more about it and about Exchange Arcade – I love its grandeur and the sense of civic pride that it evokes.  There are all sorts of amazing details, from the vacuum system built into the skirting boards, to the paintings that incorporate Nottingham people into historical scenes, which make it a very special place. 

Nottingham’s Council House, by architect Thomas Cecil Howitt. Photo: Lucy Brouwer

LB:             Nottingham architect Thomas Chambers Hine‘s granddaughter Muriel was a novelist, have you read any of her work? Does she draw on her family background in her books?

FW:             Her most autobiographical book is probably ‘A Great Adventure’, in which a family move from Wollaton to a house in the Raleigh Street area of Lacingham (a thinly disguised version of Nottingham!). The father is an architect who wins a competition to design a hospital… so you can see the parallels with her own family life.

The house on Raleigh Street, Nottingham where Muriel Hine’s father George Thomas Hine lived. Designed by Hine and Son. Photo: Lucy Brouwer

In ‘Wild Rye’ the main character comes to live in Lacingham with her grandparents who seem to be based on Hine’s own grandparents.  In the novel they live in a big house in the Oxford Street area, so again you can see the influences of her own experience.

Thomas Chambers Hine’s house and office on corner of Regent Street and Oxford Street, Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer

Other of her novels address very specifically the changing position of women at the turn of the 20th century, the struggle for the vote and whether they needed a man, marriage, children, etc. to feel complete or what the possibilities were of life without any of those things. They are interesting to read because although it can seem quite foreign to us, she was writing about attitudes and conventions that were very real in her lifetime.

LB:            Do you find that people notice the buildings in Nottingham? Do you think conducting tours changes the way people see a place?

FW:            I find people notice buildings to a certain extent, but often don’t see the detail.  One of the best rewards for a guide (as I’m sure you know), is one someone says the ‘I never noticed that before’ phrase, often about somewhere that they’ve walked past a thousand times, or worked nearby but never really looked at. It makes all that research worthwhile!

Without trying to sound too philosophical or mystical about it, I think that hearing the stories about a building, knowing that some other person had a particular connection with it, sort of personalises our built environment and gives us a relationship with those who have been in this place before us.

Many thanks to Felicity for answering my questions. You can keep up with all her tours, both virtual and live, via her Facebook page.

Felicity is hosting a short series of themed virtual tours of Nottingham locations:

May 16, 2020: The Exchange Arcade

May 23, 2020: Kings, Nurses and A Poet

May 30, 2020: Arrows, architects and alcohol

Tours are free but please book in advance and give a donation to Felicity’s chosen charity, Maggie’s Nottingham. #NottGoingOut.

Express Chambers by Dan Simpkin
Interview

Guest Interview: Jo Ackroyd, Construction Professional

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While I’m unable to take walks to look at buildings, I thought I would talk to some of the people who I’ve connected with through a mutual interest in Fothergill and the buildings of Nottingham.

In this installment I talk to Jo Ackroyd, a Pre Construction professional at Willmott Dixon Construction. I helped Jo with some research on a Watson Fothergill building for a project on Conservation and Heritage. Jo and his colleagues gave me some great professional insight into Fothergill’s techniques and use of materials when I took them on a tour of Nottingham.

Lucy Brouwer:            Can you briefly tell me about your professional interest in architecture and building conservation?

Jo Ackroyd:            There are fewer and fewer people who have an understanding of the skills and trades of yesteryear. As these skills are lost, the industry is replacing them with poorly judged and ill placed modern materials. I see these incompatible materials and cheap attempts to repair historic fabric and find myself wondering why and how are these seen as acceptable? To learn about these old buildings means to study both the architecture and the skills required to construct them.

As with Alice, the more you learn, the more the rabbit hole opens and you find yourself sucked into a fascinating and detailed world. Moreover, the people involved are usually, ‘individuals’!

It is also an aspiration that following a specialism such as this will enable me to move away from modern construction.

Express Chambers by Dan Simpkin
Express Chambers, Nottingham, April 2020, Photo: Dan Simpkin

LB:            You did a project on Watson Fothergill’s Express building – what drew you to that building in particular?

JA:             It is one of Fothergill’s significant buildings. Significant by its size, position in the city, use of materials and its history of adaptions.

I needed a building with a rich history and many of his other works are relatively small by comparison.

As I discovered more about the building, I found errors in texts, stories of the building’s development and use, the influence of technological change and how the building reflected societal development. Essentially the buildings of the age performed many functions and assisted the growth of individual businesses and the development of the city as a whole. The investors were very canny about spreading the assets uses to decrease risk.

I also found an otherwise unmentioned Newlyn Datum. An important mark which hitherto had not been mentioned in the texts and reflected the status of the building and the importance of its position.

Datum Mark on Express Building, Photo: Roger Templeman

LB:            Do you have a favourite building in Nottingham? Which one and why?

JA:             I do like the old Fothergill former NatWest Bank. It’s a deviation from his usual style and materials and the way it was extended is astounding.

There’s also a form of Ghost Sign on the front façade, as the old NatWest sign was removed its left an urban mark behind, which I intend to discuss in my next paper.

By comparison, I also like the Halifax Bank in Long Eaton, it’s a stand alone Fothergill of some status.

It uses all his usual hallmark materials and designs and is set in quite a unique way to augment its proportions.

Halifax/ former Smith & Co Bank, Long Eaton. Photo: David Lally

LB:            From a builder’s point of view, what’s special about Fothergill’s architecture and the way he uses materials?

JA:            I don’t believe his approach was unique. I do think the way he reused his elements was straight from a pattern book.

This in itself isn’t new, Robert Adam had the same approach, but Fothergill mixed the colours and textures very well to create a unique aesthetic.

He obviously used the same materials, skill and trades, the same individuals on each of his projects.

I suspect that’s how he died a millionaire! I assume his supply chain was very tight and he benefited greatly from this.

Not least because he acted as architect, project manager and quantity surveyor.

These elements now stand out in Nottingham as many other forms of architecture lack the polychromatic tracery, the ornate and intricate carvings and the shear willingness to build a spire which has absolutely no use whatsoever!

Many thanks to Jo for taking the time to answer my questions. And thanks again for all the insights into building – I incorporate a lot of them into my tours! If you’d like to join me for a walk when we are able to get out again, then you can purchase a gift voucher to redeem against future events.

Interview

Guest interview: Nick Coupland Illustration

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In these strange times while I’m not able to take walks out to look at buildings, I thought I would ask some of the people whom I’ve connected with through mutual interest in Fothergill and the buildings of Nottingham to answer a few questions to see what I could learn about their perspective.

First up illustrator Nick Coupland. I stumbled upon Nick’s drawings on Twitter and recently purchased a print of his drawing of Watson Fothergill’s office on George Street, Nottingham. It’s on the wall in front of my desk, reminding me of what’s out there waiting when I can get back to the tours…

Fothergill’s Office on George Street, Nottingham by Nick Coupland. You can buy a print here.

Nick is based near Hull, but his illustrations range from Modern Architecture icons to football stadiums, recently he has started drawing music venues. I asked him a few questions via email and learned a little about what makes him tick:

Lucy Brouwer:             You draw a lot of modern architecture, very different from Fothergill’s Gothic – what made you want to draw his Nottingham office building?

Nick Coupland:            I was initially asked to draw the Fothergill building as a commission. I’d noticed the architect’s work on a few visits to Nottingham so it was nice to get stuck into it, as it really is a unique building. It doesn’t visually follow any set formula so you really have to draw it as you see it- there’s no cheating with this one. 

I normally draw a lot of post war architecture as I have a bit of a personal interest in it, but really I’ll turn my pen to any style. I’ve drawn anything from people’s first terraced houses to palaces and grand railway terminus.

The thing that made the Fothergill building so nice to draw is its changes in texture, form and shade- when you draw in pen and ink theses are the features that really make a building jump from the page.

LB:            I really like your architectural map of Beverley – would you consider drawing more Nottingham buildings to make something similar?

NC:            I originally did a cluster drawing of Hull and it worked quite nicely so I wanted to do something popular for the local market town of Beverley. I had a nice customer base there so I thought it would make sense to draw the architecture of the town. 

For someone who enjoys post-war architecture, Beverley was fairly limited in that sense however it has a lovely range of contrasting styles.

Nottingham would be ideal due to it having a good mix, both Modern and Classical. I’ve previously drawn the old Boots building and am currently working on Rock City for a new project.

LB:            I see from your social media that you’ve been drawing some favourite music venues lately; can you tell me a bit about these? (Love the Barras one! My first tour guiding gig was at The Barrowlands, Glasgow’s premier live venue)

Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow by Nick Coupland.

NC:            I’m a big music fan and really enjoy live music- especially at independent venues. It’s long been an ambition to combine the two interests in a project. I’ve been working on a series of drawings charting the nation’s iconic venues up and down the country including those no longer around. The lockdown has meant a really tough time for music venues and the future looks uncertain for many of them so I’m exploring ways of possibly making the project beneficial in some way.

One thing I have noticed is how unique these venues are – I’ve loved drawing Glasgow Barrowland with its iconic illuminated sign, then I’ve also loved drawing Hull’s Adelphi, which is basically an end terrace. What’s noticeable though is how much these venues are adored by the public and how close they hold them to their hearts. 

Concerts always seem to create good memories.

CB GB, legendary New York City music venue, by Nick Coupland.

LB:            Are there any buildings you’d like to draw that you’ve not had the chance to do yet? Do you need to visit them to draw them?

NC:             There’s so many beautiful buildings out there calling to be drawn, but the problem like so much of life is finding the time. I always have a few projects on the go at once and my style of drawing takes quite a long time to complete. I try to get to the building for sketches and photographs (and also just to get a feel for the place). However with so much architecture being demolished and many frontages being renovated- I often have to do a bit of detective work with old photos.

 A good example this was drawing Portsmouth’s now demolished Tricorn Centre. It took me a couple of weeks of looking at old photos and making sketches- my studio wall looked like a Hollywood detective’s with pictures and notes stuck everywhere. I’ve always had a bit of an ambition to draw a long landscape of Habitat 67 in Montreal, I’ve made sketches so hopefully I’ll get round to finishing it. Barrowland and New York’s CBGB’s were on my to-do list for ages.

Sometimes it’s nice to take a little break from buildings though this does tend to be more personal rather than commercial. I recently got into a weird habit of drawing guitar foot pedals – I love the typography on them as well as their strange names.

Huge thanks to Nick for taking the time to talk to me, you can see more and buy his work at Nick Coupland Illustration or follow him on Twitter or Instagram.