Guided tours of Nottingham
I spoke to Lynette Pinchess at The Nottingham Post about one of Nottingham’s most fascinating buildings – Watson Fothergill’s Office on George Street.
You can find out more about the building and the many others that the architect built on The Watson Fothergill Walk – tickets are now available for walk in March and April 2023 or send a message to make a private booking for your group of 6-20 people.
This weekend I took a group and their dogs on the Watson Fothergill Walk… It was very chilly (I don’t do many walks in January and I wear thermals!) but the group and their dogs all enjoyed learning about Nottingham’s unique architecture.
There is no extra charge for well-behaved dogs on my walks – and the Watson Fothergill Walk has the added bonus of finishing up at the dog-friendly pub Fothergill’s.
You can book a private tour for 6 or people (with or without canine pals) or join one of my ticketed walks.
The next scheduled date with ticket availability is Sunday 26th March at 10 am, tickets £15 each (book before 1 February and you won’t pay Eventbrite fees) or sign up to the mailing list to get news of dates as they are announced.
The walk on 12 March sold out very quickly so I have added another Watson Fothergill Walk on Sunday 26 March, 10 am. Tickets are £15 each and if you buy before 1 February there are no Eventbrite fees to pay.
NEWS FLASH…. I am running a private Watson Fothergill Walk on Monday 16 January at 2 pm – The group have generously offered to let me open this up to anyone who can join us. £15 each – pay cash on the day. Meet outside Visit Nottingham Tourism Office by The Council House at 2 pm – the walk takes approx 2 hours and finishes at Fothergill’s Pub. Email Watsonfothergillwalk@gmail.com to secure a place.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
The building is now home to the Pakistani Centre which provides an Older Persons Day Car Service, a community restaurant and space for prayer.
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”.
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.
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.
Watson Fothergill Walk, the Nottingham walking tour looking at the buildings of architect Watson Fothergill is back!
Explore the architecture of Nottingham’s most flamboyant Victorian architect on an entertaining and informative walk with tour guide Lucy Brouwer.
The first public walk of the year will be a collaboration with Debbie Bryan’s Lace Market Tea Room. Tickets include afternoon tea, with many dietary options available including Traditional, Vegan, Vegetarian and gluten-free.
The walk starts at 10 am on 10 April 2022, arriving at Debbie Bryan on St Mary’s Gate at 12 noon.
Tickets are £38 each – includes a two-hour walk followed by a full afternoon tea.
Tickets are now available for a Cream Tea option priced £22 each with the same array of dietary options.
“Lucy is a super guide and we had a great time, also learned a lot! Not least to keep looking up!”
Lynn B, February 2022
More walks coming soon – make sure you’re signed up to the mailing list for news of forthcoming events.
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.
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”.
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!
As I mention on the Watson Fothergill Walk, these four stone lion sculptures originally adorned the tower of the Black Boy Hotel. On a visit to the newly reopened Nottingham Castle I found them in the grounds welcoming visitors. Each one has weathered to give it an individual character and their paws look almost as if they’re raising a toast!
Fothergill worked on the hotel over many years, coming back to rebuild and extend it on several occasions. On the tower, added in 1897, you can make out the lions, each a standard bearer with a shield – their poles are now long gone but you can see where they would have held them in their paws.
The hotel was demolished in 1970 and replaced by Littlewoods (now Primark) on Long Row. The lions have been at the Castle ever since.
Read more about The Black Boy Hotel here, or join the Watson Fothergill Walk to learn all about the building, its architect and his work in Nottingham.
Tickets for forthcoming guided tours with tour guide Lucy Brouwer.
Tickets have just been released for a raft of new dates in June and July!
Tickets for the following walks are now on sale:
The Carrington Crawl, 26 June 2021, 1 pm – 2 returns now available!
(with added access to Clawson Lodge thanks to The Ukrainian Cultural Centre).
A look at the domestic architecture of Watson Fothergill and his chief assistant L.G. Summers in Mapperley Park, Sherwood Rise and Carrington (with tea and coffee available at Clawson Lodge and a chance to look around inside) 2 hours/ 3km.
Watson Fothergill Walk – 27 June 2021, 10 am The original city centre walk, looking at the flamboyant Victorian architecture of Watson Fothergill, also known as Fothergill Watson! 2hrs/ 2km.
An evening Watson Fothergill Walk – 1 July 2021, 6 pm
An evening version of the city centre walk, with a chance to stop off at Fothergill’s pub at the end. 2hrs/2km.
Watson Fothergill Walk – 18 July 2021, 10 am
The original city centre walk with a look at the architecture of Watson Fothergill. 2hrs/2km.
Hine Hike: The Buildings of Thomas Chambers Hine – 25 July 2021, 10 am
A look at some of the work of another architect who made a big impact on Victorian Nottingham – Thomas Chambers Hine. 2hrs/3km
Tickets for all walks are £15 each and numbers are limited to 12 people per tour (for now!)
Lucy is also available during the week for private tours for small groups so please email if you have a group of friends or family who would enjoy discovering Nottingham from a new angle!
| 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! Tickets are £15 each available from Eventbrite. 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) More details and tickets. |
| If you would like to book a private guided walk or Zoom talk with tour guide Lucy Brouwer, please send an email via this page. |
I was overwhelmed by the great response to the Watson Fothergill Virtual Walks earlier in the year, so I’m going to do one more…
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.