Do you know someone who would enjoy an entertaining and informative look at Nottingham’s Victorian architecture? Well, why not treat them to a place on one of tour guide Lucy Brouwer’s Watson Fothergill Walks in 2023 by purchasing a gift voucher online?
Each voucher is valid for one ticket booked on Eventbrite and can be used for up to a year.
Vouchers are available here – they can be sent by email or printed off.
Fothergill’s Buildings in Mansfield is an illustrated online talk, via Zoom. It will take place on Tuesday 22 November 2022 at 7 pm – ticket holders can watch live or have access to a recording will be available for one month after the broadcast date.
Flamboyant Victorian Architect Fothergill Watson was born in 1841 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Some of his earliest buildings were in the town. In this illustrated online talk Tour Guide and Art Historian, Lucy Brouwer will look at their history.
Before he moved to Nottingham, Fothergill Watson (who changed his name in 1892 to Watson Fothergill) had many connections in Mansfield and here he built houses, shops and the town’s Cattle Market.
In this “Virtual Tour”, Lucy – the creator of the popular Nottingham guided tour, Watson Fothergill Walk – will look at the surviving buildings and those that were demolished.
If there are any groups – WI, U3A, Local History Societies etc – who would be interested in a Zoom-version of one of my talks then please get in touch. My talks on Watson Fothergill in Nottingham, The Buildings of Fothergill in Mansfield and On The Trail of Thomas Chambers Hine can all be delivered as an illustrated digital lecture via Zoom. Please contact Lucy to discuss your requirements.
Many people who join me (Lucy – your tour guide!) for the Watson Fothergill Walk tell me that now they know what to look for, they’re going to spend more time looking up!
Nottingham has lots of beautiful and unusual architecture – some of the most decorative and interesting buildings were designed by Victorian architect Watson Fothergill – you can learn more about the man and his work on my guided walking tour of the city centre.
The only date for the Watson Fothergill Walk in September 2022 will be on Sunday 18 starting at 10 am. Tickets are £15 each (earlybird tickets with no Eventbrite fees available until 1 September).
The Hine Hike looks at the buildings of architect Thomas Chambers Hine in Nottingham. Get tickets.Explore the life and work of Nottingham’s most flamboyant architect, Watson Fothergill. Get tickets.
Join tour guide Lucy Brouwer for an entertaining and informative look at some of Nottingham’s most characteristic Victorian architecture and change the way you see the city.
Tickets for all forthcoming events available on Eventbrite.
I’m a member of Nottingham’s Women in Business networking group, Blue Stockings Society. Together we have put together a new event on Thursday 28 July starting at 7 pm. It will comprise a short guided walk that takes an entertaining and informative look at the architecture and history of The Lace Market – with buildings by architects Watson Fothergill and Thomas Chambers Hine, as well as the modern urban landscaping that makes the area unique.
After the walk, there will be a networking session at The Angel Microbrewery, inside the historically interesting Old Angel Pub on Stoney Street in the heart of the quarter. Tickets are available here and open to both members of Blue Stockings and non-members who are interested in meeting other local women in business. The event is for women only. Tickets are available from both Watson Fothergill Walk and Blue Stockings Society, but numbers for the walk are limited so please book in advance.
Tickets for all forthcoming guided walks – The Watson Fothergill Walk and The Hine Hike – are available here on Eventbrite. If you’re interested in a guided architecture walk for your group, then send Lucy a message here.
Watson Fothergill Walk, Sunday 3 July, 10 am The original Nottingham city centre walk exploring the life and work of Victorian architect Watson Fothergill, also known as Fothergill Watson.
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.
As well as the other walks in May and June, tickets are now available for another special date with added Afternoon Tea or Cream Tea at Debbie Bryan in the Lace Market on 8 May starting at 10am.
Tickets are available here for a Watson Fothergill Walk, plus either full Afternoon Tea or Cream Tea at Debbie Bryan’s wonderful shop and tearoom in the Lace Market. The Walk starts at 10 am on Sunday 8 May and concludes at the shop around 12noon in time for tea, cakes, scones and all the usual Debbie Bryan treats (available in Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free or Regular options).
April is getting booked up with several private walks, talks to local groups and new ventures with primary school pupils and students looking at history and tour guiding. Thanks everyone for spreading the word!
The Carrington Crawl for Ukraine sold out – donations clocked up at over £390 – huge thanks to everyone who donated or enquired about the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. You can still donate here.
There are some tickets available for the Debbie Bryan Watson Fothergill Walk on 8 May, start 10am, now with the option of Afternoon Tea or Cream Tea after the walk, tickets here.
