Guided tours of Nottingham
I have set up a TripAdvisor page for the Watson Fothergill Walk. It would be great to reach a wider audience and introduce them to this most interesting of Nottingham architects! If you’ve enjoyed the walk, please leave a review – it would be a great help. You can also post photos if you have some.
I look forward to seeing some of you again on future walks… I have plans for more Hine Hikes and a Carrington Crawl to look at some of Fothergill’s domestic architecture… coming soon!
I’ve been busy reading, researching and thinking about new walks and talks for the new year. But I’m ready to get out walking again, so I’ve set up some dates for The Watson Fothergill Walk in February and March 2020.
The first walk, which will start at 10am outside Nottingham Tourism Centre and finish at Debbie Bryan on St Mary’s Gate, will take place on 16 February. Tickets are £12 each and include coffee or tea and cake at the end of the walk.
UPDATE: I have also organised a walk on 22 29 March, this is also a morning walk starting at 10am. Tickets are available here.
It is once again likely that I will be adding afternoon walks to these dates if there is sufficient demand, so if you prefer to start at 1pm, please get in touch to express an interest…
Previously, I began telling the story behind the building of The Bodega on Pelham Street. These days it’s a popular music venue and bar, but it’s been through several image changes over the years… I spoke to Alan Clifford on BBC Radio Nottingham about the building.
While it’s nothing to do with Watson Fothergill (as far as I know!) this building has opened up some interesting avenues of research and I’ve found myself scouring archives, reading about the social history of the English pub and obsessively asking people if they remember drinking there in the 1970s and ’80s…
Part one of this blog left off in 1904. The Bodega was listed as a Billiard Saloon, and seems to have departed from the Bodega Company’s Wine Bar model. The First World War hit the English licensed trade hard, with opening hours dramatically reduced, “treating’ (i.e. buying drinks for other people), giving credit and the long pull (serving more than the correct measure to attract custom) were all made illegal. (The minimum drinking age of 18 didn’t come in until 1923, and children could still buy alcohol from pubs to take home to their parents as long as it was in stoppered containers!) The war also pushed up the price of drink, and it stayed up, while the actual strength of drinks fell. For more on this and all things PUB, read The Local: A History of The English Pub by Paul Jennings. (By the time you read this I’ll have taken it back to the library...)
The 1915-16 Kelly’s Trade Directory of Nottingham lists Bodega Wine Co. Ltd. at 23 Pelham Street, trading as Bodega for the Bodega Wine and Spirit Merchants. Thomas S Poole, of 48 Harlaxton Drive is the manager. (Their phone number, Nottingham 1880, stayed the same into the 1940s.)
Robert Banks Lavery, the original owner of the Bodega Company, died in 1915 leaving his fortune of £13,2723 (approx. £ 15,049,738.89 in 2019) to various Catholic charities. The Bodega Company share price fluctuated after the war, but the business seemed to be steady around the country.
In March 1916, the Aberdeen Daily Journal reported that The Bodega Company had been admonished in the High Court by the makers of a certain beef drink, for passing off Oxo and “other meat preparations” when orders were placed for Bovril. The defendant denied the accusations but the injunction was passed and The Bodega Company paid costs.
1921 was a particularly bad year for the company’s share price, as the country recovered from the war.
In 1927, at the Nottingham Bodega, there was one of a spate of fires, leading to the Nottingham Evening Post headline: “Incendrism suspected!” Barrels of oil from the Nottingham Perfumery Co. caught fire in the passage. The branch is called The Bodega Hotel at this point, and a Mr Dominic is the employee who telephoned for the fire brigade, averting any serious damage.
In 1928, Slater’s Restaurants acquired Bodega. Slater’s were one of the largest catering companies in the world at this time. The million pound take over led to the company being known as Slaters and Bodega, bringing Bodega’s 30 outlets and 2 hotels into the company. Catering supplies had become integral to the operation. Bodega had previously been known for their outside catering, providing food and drink for race meetings, agricultural shows and the like. In 1931 there was a further takeover bid by Welsh firm RE Jones, but this failed.
One night in April 1931, the manager of the Nottingham Bodega, John Edward Marshall, was killed on Radford Road when a bus struck him after he alighted from a tramcar on his way home to Noel Street. A military man, he had seen action with the 10th Hussars. At least 11 members of staff from Bodega Wine And Spirit Company’s Saloon attended his funeral.
Plans in Nottinghamshire Archives show that improvements were made to the toilet facilities and the layout of the Bodega in 1933 and 1936. The ground floor now had a bar and a “cold counter”. Newspaper reports of a break-in by some young boys in 1940 refer to the Bodega simply as “a public house”.
In the 1950s, Billiards and Snooker were the main attractions of the Bodega in Nottingham, with several matches warranting newspaper reports on the games and their results.
In 1954, Slaters and Bodega were taken over by Charles Forte’s catering and hotel empire (to become Trust House Forte in later years). In 1956, JA Charles is installed in Pelham Street as the licensee.
Here the trail goes a little cold, as Bodega gets swallowed up into the Forte empire. But there are photographs showing what the outside of the Bodega looked like in the 1960s and 1970s.
By 1966 the Bodega in Nottingham was being run by Ind Coope Brewery from their Derby office. In 1967 they added the stairs to the front of the building and did some improvements to the toilets inside.
Ind Coope were still running the pub in 1970 when they added an extension over both floors to the rear, containing the Ladies’ toilets upstairs and a store room downstairs.
Ind Coope were involved until at least 1983 (photos below). They had become part of Allied Breweries in 1961, merging with Ansells and Tetley Walker. Allied in turn merged with food and catering giant J. Lyons and Co. in 1978 to form Allied Lyons, then again in 1992 with Carlsberg to become Carlsberg-Tetley. I haven’t been able to find out (as yet) when Bodega left the Forte empire (as it doesn’t tend to be noted when companies are sold off).
Some people I’ve spoken to remember a bierkeller-feel to the pub in the 1980s. Licensing laws again have an effect on the way pubs are organised in 1987-1988, with the introduction of flexible drinking times.
Ansells, who are quoted in 1988 as the owners of the Bodega, ring the changes and refurbished the bar as Cairo’s Disco Bar… The Evening Post reported:
“ Three traditional city centre pubs are being transformed into upmarket bars for young trendsetters in a £860,000 refit by owners Ansell’s. By the end of August… Bodega will have become Cairo’s. Ansell’s plan to create a circuit of bars with style and sophistication for Nottingham’s young trendsetters – and hope they will also cut down on night-time city centre violence. … Cairo’s Disco bar, which opens around August 23, will spin the discs until 12,30am on the first floor with a bar down below. … Ansell’s regional director: “Nottingham has more class, more fashionable people with real style, than any other city in the East Midlands…”
New look for 3 city centre pubs. Evening Post 12 July 1988.
Cairo’s is remembered as being “very neon”… it also featured as a location in an episode of Central TV’s “Boon” in 1990.
By 1993 though, Ansells had refitted the bar once more, this time to become Irish-themed Rosie O’Brien’s Pumphouse, a chain with branches across the Midlands (there was another Nottingham branch in Carrington on Mansfield Road, in 2019 the pub is called Turners.)
In 2004 the pub became The Social, under the management of The Breakfast Group, who run music venues in London and other parts of the UK.
In 2004, Nottingham’s music venue promoting powerhouse DHP took over and in 2007, the venue’s name reverted to The Bodega.
Now The Bodega is celebrating 20 years as a music venue with a special gig on 1st December 2019.
If you’d like to hire me to conduct in-depth research and detective work into buildings, businesses, architecture or local history, please get in touch!
The Watson Fothergill Walk and Hine Hike, as well as illustrated talks, will return with dates in 2020!
UPDATE: Here’s an article on The Social years featuring an interview with founder Jeff Barrett.
Earlier in the year, I was invited to talk to Alan Clifford on BBC Radio Nottingham about my walk The Hine Hike and the buildings of Thomas Chambers Hine. The programme recently got in touch with me to see if I’d like to talk to Alan on the radio again.
They asked if I knew anything about The Bodega on Pelham Street, as it is celebrating 20 years in its current incarnation as a live music venue.
As a detective, I’m even keener than Coleen Rooney, so I couldn’t resist delving into the archives to see what I could find. This building is NOT A FOTHERGILL nor is it related to his work at all as far as I know, but I’m really interested in developing the research side of my work. Here’s what I’ve found so far…
The Bodega, now at 16 Pelham Street, but previously listed as being No. 23 was built on the site of what was previously a pub called The Durham Ox.
The Durham Ox was the starting point for mail coaches to Lincoln and Newark. It was also in this pub that the Lacemakers and Printers Trade Unions would hold their weekly meetings in the early Victorian era. In 1855, the Inn made the transition to a minor music hall, hosting what were called ‘Free and Easies’, with customers supplying their own entertainment. The New Amateur Musical Society performed regularly at the Durham Ox, the Garrick Society staged dramatic reading there, and it was said to be the most popular of Nottingham’s music hall pubs. By 1900 it wasn’t considered to be quite fit to continue to be licensed. It was bought by The Bodega Company in 1901 and demolished.
They employed experienced London pub architect George Dennis Martin to rebuild the pub. The result was light and elegant, a long graceful archway with a hanging light. Projecting through a hipped roof is an exaggerated dormer with a swollen pediment on top bearing the date 1902.
The pub was still called The Durham Ox on the plans and was labelled as having a Bodega on the ground floor and a Club Room on the first floor. The Bar was on the right hand side, and the smaller arch at the front leads to a passageway.
The Bodega Company was started by Robert Banks Lavery (b.1835-6), a Captain in the Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps, who resigned his commission in 1861. Lavery & Co Bodega Spanish Wine Cellars was set up as a Wine and Spirit Merchant with branches in Manchester, London and Birmingham. In 1871 the company held wholesale and bottling vaults at St Pancras and the retail business offered – “each wine clearly and distinctly marked at its price per dock glass, bottle, dozen or quarter cask. The taster pays the proportionate small price for his sample 3d to 1s 3d and is therefore fully able to arrive at an opinion of quality.”
This delightfully verbose news item sums up the “Bodega” method of doing business:
The Bodega. – Few residents in London are unaware of the existence of the wine stores of Messrs. Lavery & Co. in Glass-house Street, Regent-Street, known more similarly by its trademark, “The Bodega”, where wines of the highest qualities are retailed in the smallest quantities, either in the form of the occasional glass for luncheon, or the modest gallon for limited homesteads. This kind of enterprise, it may be said, was altogether unknown in the wine trade, and it can easily be believed that it has excited no little jealousy on the part of the old-fashioned wine merchants, to whom the infringement of the traditions of the trade could but appear to be not only heretical but mischievous. The success that has attended the enterprise of Messrs. Lavery & Co. has proved that the latter surmises were correct. In Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Glasgow, Messrs. Lavery & Co. have opened the same character of wine bar, and with no difference in the result. The visitor “tastes” as a matter of passing convenience, according to his humour, and, if so minded can order more largely upon the sample set before him. The success spoken of has suggested the establishment of similar stores in the City, and yesterday afternoon a few friends were invited to Nos. 5 and 6 Bucklersbury, to inspect the new premises taken for the purpose. The arrangements are similar to those alluded to, both at the West End and in the provinces, and there can be little doubt the good fortune which is rewarded Messrs. Lavery & Co.’s efforts elsewhere will not be denied them in the heart of the great metropolis, where such institutions have not only larger public within reach as regards the daily necessities of refreshment, but one the best calculated to avail itself of the economical opportunities which it is the special province of “The Bodega” and its branches to afford.
27 August 1874, The Shipping And Mercantile Gazette, London.
The Bodega’s offered “wines from the wood” and Champagne by the bottle. In 1876, Lavery took one of his Manchester competitors to court for using the name “Bodega”, alleging that as a name and method of doing business it was not in use before he opened The Bodega Wine Company.
Lavery seems to have done rather well for himself, he disolved his original partnership with Francis Alfred Nicholson in 1871, and in 1881 he was to be found at Gosport taking to the waves in his yawl and cutter. In 1882 the Royal Portsmouth Yacht Club noted that member Mr. Lavery “used to run their refreshment department”. In 1895, Lavery and fellow board member of the Bodega Company, Edward Talbot Wolesley (b. 1849) wind up their interests in the Mexican Tobacco Plantation Ltd and in 1896, Lavery and another Bodgea board member, John Henry Mortimer Scott become directors of the vendor syndicate for the Almaraz Tin Mining and Smelting Company (with interests in Spanish tin mines).
In 1897, The Bodega Company is incorporated and shares are sold. It is described thus: “So long established that no description is necessary in the prospectus!”
In 1901, as Edward Talbot Wolesley was buying up The Durham Ox, The Bodega Company had 10 branches in London, 3 in Birmingham and further establishments in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Cardiff, Wolverhampton, Ryde, Wigan, Folkestone, Sheffield, Brighton and Hastings. (28 branches in all).
They provided Wine, Spirits, Liquors, Cigars and even sell their own Bodega Smoking Mixture in branded tins. The Bodega Trade Mark was protected, and the shield device (which can be seen on the front of the Nottingham building), was described as having “black letters on an orange band, crossing a shield with a garter at the foot.”
In 1901, Edward Talbot Wolesley found himself being tasked with purchasing The Durham Ox, and in 1902, GD Martin’s design was realised on Pelham Street.
The pub was licenced on behalf of Wolesley, Chairman of The Bodega Company Limited, London, at the Nottingham Sessions. “A great improvement had been effected. The building would be more open to police supervision than ever the old house was.” The upstairs Billiard Room was sanctioned as long as no side entrance was available for use by the public. Permission was granted.
In 1903, the licence for the Nottingham Bodega passed from Edward Talbot Wolesley to Cuthbert Johnson Collingwood, a bar manager for several branches of the chain, who had become Managing Director of the Bodega Company.
In 1904 the Nottingham Evening Post reported that Wolesley, former chairman of the company, had been declared bankrupt and resigned his post in 1903 over some irregularities connected to his purchase of the Durham Ox (and other establishments around the same time). He had received £9,180 in “secret commission” which was considered to be fraud!
The Bodega is listed as a “Billiard Saloon” around 1904 and regular advertisements for staff continue to appear in local papers. By 1909 there are 34 branches of Bodega around the country.
Listen out to Radio Nottingham tomorrow (8 November 2019 around 2pm) for more about The Bodega and read the next installment of this blog coming soon!
After the success of my sold out talk at West Bridgford Library back in June, I will be delivering my photo illustated talk on that other well known Victorian architect of Nottingham, Thomas Chambers Hine at Beeston Library on 19 February 2020.
The talk starts at 2pm and should last around 1 hour. Tickets are £3 each. Beeston Library has disabled access and there will be space for wheelchairs.
Tickets are available from Beeston Library or from Eventbrite. Please note I am not selling the tickets for this talk myself, they must be purchased from Inspire Libraries.
A busy August so far with several walks, both public and private. It’s great to share the love for Nottingham’s architecture with so many people. Here’s some of the Facebook reviews I’ve received so far.
A very informative and interesting walk, Lucy is obviously very passionate about the subject. A very hot, sunny Sunday so we were all wilting a bit but loved it and got some good photos. I was born and bred in Nottingham but learnt a lot from this walk. I will walk around in future looking up at the history of our (mainly) beautiful city.
Heather, Facebook, August 2019
Did the walk today, interesting informative and a super guide. I would recommend this to anyone interested in architecture or the history of Nottingham
Brenda, Facebook, August 2019
The next Watson Fothergill Walks will be in September 2019 – there are three dates now booking on Eventbrite.
19 September 2019, starts 6pm, finishing up in Fothergill’s.
29 September 2019, starts 10am, includes tea or coffee and cake at Debbie Bryan.
The Nottingham estate agents Liberty Gate have a YouTube channel where they post videos relating to the property market in the city. They have posted two on the subject of Watson Fothergill:
A short history of Watson Fothergill:
And, excitingly, a tour of the inside of “Fothergill Chambers”, Fothergill’s Office building on George Street Nottingham:
These buildings and more can be seen on my guided walking tour of Nottingham, The Watson Fothergill Walk.
The next walk with tickets available takes place on 25 August, starting at 2pm and finishing up around two hours later at Fothergill’s (a building designed by the architect, featured in the first video!)
Thanks to everyone who has joined me on the walks and shown an interest in the Nottingham architecture of Watson Fothergill. Tickets are now available for The Watson Fothergill Walk on the following dates:
An extra Sunday afternoon walk on 25th August 2019, starting at 2pm. This one will finish at Fothergill’s, where food and drinks are available (but not included).
The next one will be an evening walk on 19th September 2019, starting at 6pm, and again ending up at Fothergill’s where food and drinks are available (but not included).
If you’d prefer a morning walk, then there will be another chance to end your tour at Debbie Bryan (refreshments included) with a walk on 29 September 2019, starting at 10am.
There will be a repeat of the Beauty in The Details: Lace Market Taster Walk for Heritage Open Days this year, it will take place at 11am on 14th September. The tickets are free, but MUST be booked in advance as places are limited. This walk starts at Debbie Bryan.
All the forthcoming Watson Fothergill Walks can be found on Eventbrite here.
Once again I’ve made it inside one of the Watson Fothergill buildings that features on The Watson Fothergill Walk.
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.
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.
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.)
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 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.
There seemed to be original leaded windows on each side, and lots of strudy woodwork to support the structure.
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.
Queens Chambers shares some of the features of Fothergill’s late 1890s Vernacular Style with Jessops and was the next building he built.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 love the details of brick nogging and big dormer windows, that hardly anyone will get to see.
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.
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.
I’m enjoying working with Debbie Bryan and her team, adding a little social element to my guided walks. (The bottomless tea and great food helps!) We’re trying out a version of The Hine Hike where you can choose to upgrade from your tea and cake to a cream tea or a light lunch of soup and a savoury scone.
The walk, with me, Lucy Brouwer, looks at the Nottingham architecture of Thomas Chambers Hine, a prolific Victorian architect whose buildings dominate the city. The next date is Sunday 28 July, 2019. Starting at 12noon (at Nottingham Playhouse) and finishing at Debbie Bryan at 2pm. This is a walk of approx. 3km / 2 hours.
Tickets are available from Debbie Bryan’s website or in person from her shop at 18, St Mary’s Gate, Nottingham, NG1 1PF.
Thomas Chambers Hine’s Victorian buildings dominate the Lace Market. If you prefer a shorter walk, we are running the Lace Market Heritage Tour again on 18 July 2019, starting at 5pm. Explore St Mary’s Gate on a leisurely stroll, lasting approx. 45 mins. Tea and cake included. Tickets are also available at Debbie Bryan (online or in person).
Tickets are also available for my upcoming Watson Fothergill Walks on Eventbrite.