Tag: Inside

Inside, Research, Watson Fothergill in Nottingham

Inside Thurland Street Bank

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Observant Nottinghamians will have noticed some changes taking place in one of the city’s largest Fothergill buildings recently. The sports bar chain Box has moved into the Former Nottingham & Notts Bank (lately All Saints and before that Nat West) on the corner of Pelham Street and Thurland Street.

Picture of how the Thurland Street Nottingham and Notts Bank looked circa 1898 from The Builder (found at archive.org) Building was completed 1882 – “Fothergill Watson” carved beneath the date stone as this predates his 1892 name change.
Thurland Street Bank, November 2023. Note how the chimneys have changed over the years (there is one fancy one left at the back of the building). Photo: Lucy Brouwer


I’ve waited a long time to get inside parts of this building and my ambition to have a look at the stained glass upstairs was finally realised as the bar opened to the public last week. Thanks to the friendly staff for letting me have a look around. The building has been developed with strict rules about how the listed interior can be used, so hopefully the fabric of this fantastic example of Fothergill’s work will survive this regeneration for use as a party venue!


I’ll hopefully get time to do a more thorough post on the history of the building soon but meanwhile here are some photos of the stained glass, which is in a part of the building that is not open to the public.

The oriel window features Chaucer and Shakespeare. The motto: Tolle Lege “Take up and read”. Photo: Lucy Brouwer

Fothergill has form with Chaucer – inside his office, there is a carved quotation:

“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, Th’assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge”. 

The Parliament of Fowls, Geoffrey Chaucer.

See previous blog for a full translation into modern English. 

Fothergill was also fond of a religious quotation “Tolle lege” are the words spoken to St Augustine during his conversion to Christianity…

Chaucer – was one of the authors revered and published by William Morris also an inspiration to Watson Fothergill? Photo: Lucy Brouwer
William Shakespeare – recognisable even from outside when back to front! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
From the outside this window looks like it was once on a staircase, that is long gone like the rest of the interior decoration upstairs, but the quality of the work shines through. Photo: Lucy Brouwer

The female figures on this window represent Art, Science, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufacture and Mining. This chimes with the frieze on the exterior that represents the three major industries of Nottinghamshire in the 1880s – Agriculture, Textiles and Mining. The quotation underneath is:

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. For there is no work nor device for knowledge nor wisdom in the grave wither thou goest. The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 verses 10 & 11, King James Bible Version

I’d love to track down evidence of the artist who designed this stained glass, so if anyone has any leads please get in touch!

A first attempt at video so forgive the portrait mode!

Inside, Research, Watson Fothergill in Nottingham

Inside Queen’s Chambers

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One of the great things about doing The Watson Fothergill Walk is that people sometimes invite me to explore inside the buildings…

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.

Plans for the Queen Street elevation of Queen’s Chambers (courtesy Woodlands).

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”.

Nottingham Journal, 17 Feb 1899 (British Newspaper Archive).

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!

All photos by Lucy Brouwer.