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.
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).
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.
Lucy will be giving an illustrated talk on Fothergill’s Buildings in Mansfield live and in person at Mansfield Central Library on 10 May 2022 at 2pm. Tickets are £3 each and available from the library or via this link on Eventbrite.
Fothergill Watson (as he was then) was born in Mansfield in 1841 and many of his early buildings came about through his connections in the town. The illustrated talk looks at Fothergill’s family, the buildings that he designed in the town that remain, including houses, shops and the Cattle Market. There will also be a chance to discover some of the buildings that have been demolished.
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!”
A look at one of the few buildings that Fothergill worked on outside Nottinghamshire.
I was in the neighbourhood recently, so took the opportunity to have a closer look at an intriguing building. Dunedin, now called Burnage Court, on Lawrie Park Avenue in Syndenham, South London. It’s something of a mystery how Fothergill Watson came to work on additions to this house, but I’ve done some digging to see what I can find. (As this was in 1888, it was before his name change to Watson Fothergill.)
Dunedin, now Burnage Court, Sydenham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I took some photos from the road, and then I knocked on a couple of doors to see if there was anyone in. Huge thanks to Ritchye for talking to me and letting me have a little look around inside her flat. (It was on the market last year and photos are still online).
The date stone on the side of the building. The carved animal at the top looks a little like the one on the Fothergill villa on Mansfield Road, but I’m uncertain if these are original features. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
There is a date stone on the side of the house that matches the date in Fothergill’s 1888 diary when he records a visit “to Littleton’s house Sydenham about additions” (quoted in Darren Turner: Fothergill: A Catalogue of The Works of Watson Fothergill, new edition with photos now available).
Certainly the red brick parts of the house and some of the details seem recognisable as part of Fothergill’s oeuvre, but “additions” points to the fact that he was working to alter an existing property, perhaps in a similar way to the work done on St Andrews House in Nottingham, where he added sections to an existing Georgian house.
A little digging uncovered a few clues. Not least this painting by Impressionist painter Camile Pissarro…
Camille Pissarro
The Avenue, Sydenham
1871
Oil on canvas, 48 × 73 cm
Bought, 1984
NG6493
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG6493
Compare the view that Pissarro painted “en plein air” during his London exile during the Franco-Prussian war with the view down Lawrie Park Avenue today and St Bartholomew’s church is still easy to spot… I believe Dunedin, as it would have been before Fothergill’s additions, is the cream-coloured building near the centre of the picture.
A search of local blogs reveals that there was a house called Dunedin on the spot since around the 1860s and it was adjacent to Westwood House. The road was renamed Lawrie Park Avenue later. The clues from Fothergill’s diary entry start to make some sense.
The rest of Fothergill’s diary entry reads: “The mansion in the grounds called Westwood was built by Pearson 3 or 4 years ago. Bright red bricks with elaborate Royal and figure Carvings to all windows. The roof all of bright red tiles with turrets etc. This and the houses of the two sons lighted by electricity throughout.”
So, we have Mr Littleton, his two sons and a mansion called Westwood built by Pearson.
Mr Littleton was Henry Littleton (1823 – 1888), a music publisher who had risen in his profession to take over the Novello empire. (No relation to the performer Ivor Novello – who took the name for the stage as it was well known in musical circles). I delved into Michael Hurd’s exhaustive history of the firm, Vincent Novello & Co and Two Centuries of Soho by JH Cardwell. (available to browse on the Internet Archive).
Henry Littleton in later life, from Two Centuries of Soho by JH Cardwell 1898.
At his retirement about a year before his death, Henry had appointed his sons, Alfred Henry Littleton (1845-1914) and Augustus James Littleton (1854-1943) as directors of the firm which was then called Novello, Ewer & Co. Both sons had joined the firm aged 17, with Alfred eventually becoming the head of the firm and Augustus looking after the bookbinding and printing side of the enterprise.
Alfred H Littleton from The Musical Times 1911
Augustus Littleton as Falstaff (with sword) circa 1886, performing with the Irving Dramatic Club. (via Google images).
Henry Littleton purchased a farmhouse on the south slope of Sydenham’s West Hill in 1874, this was the first version of Westwood House. He engaged the architect John Loughborough Pearson to extend and remodel the house in red brick, with the air of a French Chateau. The house had “gables, turrets and tall chimneys sprouted everywhere. Spacious windows with heads of great composers set in stained glass medallions along with a coat of arms drummed up for Sir Henry de Littleton”. The effect was theatrical.
Westwood House was not only a “noble and imposing mansion with a carriage drive and ornamental lodge at the entrance” (as it was described when it was sold in 1895), it also boasted a teak panelled music salon. It opened in July 1881 and Henry Littleton used the house to host big names whose work he published, including Dvorak and Franz Liszt .
Frank Loughborough Pearson, the architect’s son, was to marry Alfred’s daughter Cecilia Littleton and go on to work on a headquarters for Novello and Co on Wardour Street. There is a very tenuous connection to Fothergill here: Pearson worked with sculptor Nathanial Hitch, who may also have worked on the friezes on the Nottingham and Notts bank HQ.
Augustus Littleton is cited as the source for photographs in several books of the period dealing with interior design and sculpture. Indeed, the rest of Fothergill’s 1888 diary entry concerns viewing a bust of Liszt that Augustus Littleton had in his drawing room, which is likely to have been a clay model for this sculpture by Boehm.
In the 1881 census, both Alfred and Augustus Littleton and their families are listed as living in the vicinity of West Hill. Alfred at The Avenue, Dunedin House and Augustus at Laurie Park Gardens. By 1891 all the Littleton family members seem to have left the area. Alfred was then residing in Hyde Park Gardens, but several of his children were born in Syndenham.
So, it’s difficult to confirm who commissioned the work on Dunedin, how Fothergill might have been connected to the wealthy Littleton brothers and for how long they might have stayed in the house (and, indeed, if they lived in it after Fothergill worked on it). The 1939 register indicates that the house had been turned into flats by that time, with some of it empty when the register was taken.
Westwood House was to suffer a more drastic fate… It was sold off and in 1899 became the Passmore Edwards Teachers’ Orphanage, it closed in 1939 and was demolished in 1952. There is now a housing estate and a care home named Westwood House on the site.
The front of Burnage Court. Photo: Lucy BrouwerThe back of the house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The house is now divided into 8 flats, one was recently on the market for rent, and one is occasionally available as accommodation via Airbnb.
The building is not listed, and various alterations have been made over the years. A lot of coloured glass, which looks typical of Fothergill, remains. Looking closer at the photos, I think that Dunedin was originally made of yellow brick (typical of other houses in the area) and Fothergill added red brick elements, timber details and decorations, perhaps to compliment the adjacent Westwood House. The chimneys, the brick nogging, the timber cladding inside and the tower all make sense in this context.
If anyone knows any more about Dunedin, The Littleton family or Fothergill’s possible connections to South London please contact me. (Fothergill attended Mr Long’s School, Clapham Park School as a child and visited Upper Norwood with his wife in 1883. He later named some streets in a speculative development in Nottingham Clapham, Norwood, Brixton and Sydenham, so perhaps had some affection for the area?)