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).
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).
At the moment I am only able to take groups of up to 6 (including me!) so there are just 5 tickets for The Carrington Crawl on 15 August 2020.
NEWS FLASH! The first walk is already full! But I have added more dates (Aug 20, 11am & Aug 22, 2pm): Tickets for all forthcoming walks are available on Eventbrite.
If you have a group of 5 people or less and would like to arrange a time to do the walk then please get in touch. (I can also do walks on weekdays.)
We successfully tried out the walk with social distancing in place and so I’d like to try more dates.
Thanks to the Promenaders for trying out The Carrington Crawl!
The Carrington Crawl looks at the domestic architecture of Watson Fothergill and his assistant LG Summers at Mapperley Road, Sherwood Rise and Carrington.
Some great photos of Lucy in action during a wet but enjoyable Watson Fothergill Walk on 16 February. It was great to see people so keen to join in the first public tour of the year! Photos by theparkestate on Instagram (follow them for some great photos of houses by Fothergill, Hine and other Nottingham architectes in Nottingham’s Park Estate).
16 February 2020 Watson Fothergill Walk. Lucy guiding in the rain! Thanks to theparkestate for the photos.
As previously mentioned, I’ve listed the walks on TripAdvisor, had some lovely reviews so far. If you’ve been on my walk (and enjoyed it!) please leave a review.
Links to all the tickets for forthcoming walks are here on Eventbrite.
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.
Debbie Bryan’s shop and tea room in the heart of The Lace Market.
T.C. Hine’s Adams Buildings is full of beautiful details. Explore the Lace Market with Lucy Brouwer.
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).
There are a handful of tickets left for the 21 July evening walk and you can get tickets here. Also, I will be conducting some more Watson Fothergill Walks in August 2019.
First up, 18 August sees another Sunday morning walk starting at 10am, which will conclude at Debbie Bryan with tea and cake. Tickets here.
Another chance to try the Watson Fothergill Walk. Tickets here.
I will also be walking in the evening of 22 August, starting at 6pm and finishing up at Fothergill’s pub (for optional food and drinks). Tickets here.
I try to keep the walks to small groups of around 20 people, so if they fill up and you miss oout on tickets, please sign up for the mailing list and try again or think about booking me for a private group tour – I’m interested in taking groups of between 6 and 20 people around Nottingham at times to suit them. Get in touch!
Having studied the building from the outside, the chance to have a look around inside the Offices of Watson Fothergill on George Street, Nottingham was too good to resist. Many thanks to Sarah Julian of BBC Radio Nottingham for giving me the opportunity and to the Bragas for letting me take a few quick photos and letting me talk to them about the building.
Following on from my previous blog about getting through the door to find a quote from Geoffrey Chaucer, here we go up stairs to find the offices that have been turned into a two bedroom flat.
Fothergill built his office on George Street in 1894-5 after having to vacate his previous set up on Clinton Street when the railway came through. Typically, he had been prepared for the move and bought the site on George Street. He demolished the previous building in readiness for building his office. Aged 54 at the time, he was a confident and mature architect, his office serves as a three dimensional portfolio, and a lot of his later work around Nottingham seems to have followed on from this construction. It demonstrates his capabilites to his wealthy Nottingham clients and showed them the quality to which his creations aspired.
Up to the first floor and I noticed a familiar name on the door! (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)
I managed to grab a few photos, but as well as being rather overwhelmed I was also talking to Sarah for the radio piece, so forgive the rather snatched images! Up on the first floor, the first thing that caught my eye was the nameplates on the internal doors. The larger of the two rooms bore the initials L.G. Summers (Fothergill’s assistant, co-architect but never partner, in the practice Lawrence George Summers who will be familiar to readers of this blog.)
On the other door, a suitably Gothic name plate. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)
The owners pointed out that the door with Fothergill’s name on lead to the smaller of the two rooms, they deduced that this was so that, in a building heated by coal fires, the boss would have the warmer office. It is also the office on the turret side of the building.
The fireplace in Fothergill’s office looks likely to be original. Nice Gothic ballflower detail. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The niche above Fothergill’s fireplace has some Gothic touches surviving and the ceiling was panelled. We weren’t sure about all the wallpaper! (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)
There was a sense in the room that it would have made a cosy place to work, there was a connecting door through to Summers’ office and then the landing between them and the small waiting room that has been extended into a modern kitchen.
Fireplace and parquet flooring in what would have been the small waiting room area at the back. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer) Summers’ office has been turned into the lounge of the flat. This is the larger room at the front on the first floor. The fireplace was off-centre and we couldn’t agree if this was an original feature. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The view out the back window of the cottages in Brewitt’s yard. The one closest on the left has been incorporated into the building to make the kitchen and bathroom. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The landing window contained some more coloured glass and what seems to be a quote from ‘The Life of Christ’ by Frederick Farrar (1874) perhaps a book that Fothergill, who had his religious moments, had read and taken to heart? (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The staircase up to the second floor. No one seemed to know what the statue represents; it was left by the previous owner. The niche suggests there has always been some art there but was it this? Anyone know who the chap with the bells is? (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The room in the turret, you can just see a panel in the ceiling which would have allowed you to look up into the workings and see the herringbone structure. It was currently full of insulation, but perhaps imagine Fothergill showing clients the quality of the woodwork inside his tower! (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)The door to the other room upstairs, the owner had been staying there so I didn’t get a picture of inside! Presumably Fothergill’s apprentices and assistants worked upstairs. They had a fireplace in every room. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)In the little room that had been made into the toilet, was this tiny window. The owners removed a pulley system that seems to have been for hauling bags of coal up to the top floor in order to heat the offices. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)
It was tricky to get more photos and talk at the same time so there’s just a flavour of what the building was like inside and we didn’t get time to look in the shop downstairs or further into the yard.
The conversion seems to be sympathetic – the building was used as a solicitors office prior to being sold (at least twice) so it had been disused for quite sometime. The quality of the workmanship on the repairs is first rate. It was mentioned that Fothergill had made a sturdy structure with a stone or concrete foundation – without which, the damage that was inflicted in 2015 might have destroyed the front of the building. Bonsers have written about the restoration they carried out on their website.
I will be running more Watson Fothergill guided walks into July and August – you can find dates and details via my Eventbrite page where you can book tickets. Private tours can be arranged – get in touch with Lucy via the contact page.
July sees the 178th anniversary of Fothergill’s birth, so it seems fitting to offer more chances to explore his Nottingham buildings on The Watson Fothergill Walk.
The next dates will be two walks on 21 July 2019:
Join Lucy to explore Watson Fothergill’s Nottingham, includes tea or coffee and cake at Debbie Bryan. Tickets here.
The first will be in the afternoon at 2pm, ending at Debbie Bryan with drinks and cake. Tickets here.
The evening walk will finish at Fothergill’s pub. Tickets here.
(Watson Fothergill’s birthday is actually 12th July but I can’t do a walk that day!)
If you can’t make either of these but are still interested in joining the guided tour you can either arrange a private walk for you and your group (minimum 6, maximum 20 people) contact Lucy for details. Or sign up to the mailing list to get the latest dates sent to your inbox.
I am working with Debbie Bryan again to offer my Lace Market Heritage Tour for Father’s Day on 16 June starting at 1pm. We will take a look at the unique industrial architecture of the Lace Market, including buildings by Watson Fothergill and Thomas Chambers Hine.
The beauty is in the details.
Then there are two options for teas after the short guided walk: A full afternoon tea with a choice of three luxurious menus or a simple and delicious cream tea with scones and jam.
The tour will explore the architectural gems of St Mary’s Gate in Nottingham’s Lace Market including buildings by Watson Fothergill and Thomas Chambers Hine, it’s a short tour of about 45 minutes with walking on flat ground. So chose your tea and get your tickets!
