Tag: Photos

Research, Watson Fothergill in Nottingham

Research and Distractions

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While I’m still available for walks (Covid-19 regulations permitting) as private bookings and I have gift vouchers on offer (if you’d like to have a walk to look forward to in 2021), I’m also trying to research more buildings for future walks and talks on the architecture of Nottingham. But I get so easily distracted…

I was thinking about a photo that I’d seen online, but could not remember where I’d seen it. (The constant stream of content on social media makes it tricky to pin down sources.) But, a few tweets fired at some contacts proved that I hadn’t imagined it, here was the picture:

Thanks Nottinghasm who originally found the photo in one of the Iliffe and Baguley Victorian Nottingham books which feature images from the illusive Nottingham Historical Film Unit. These books, published in the 1970s, are scattered around Notts Libraries Local History shelves…

A photo of the construction of the railway from Nottingham Victoria Station, the construction of which had caused the demolition of Watson Fothergill’s original office on Clinton Street. The photo shows Fothergill’s 1896 Furley & Co building, which now house Lloyds Bank on the corner of Lower Parliament Street and Clinton Street West (it features on The Watson Fothergill Walk).

The corner of Clinton Street West, from the opposite angle. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The front of the building on The Watson Fothergill Walk. Photo: Dominic Morrow.

A flurry of further tweets uncovered a higher quality version of the railway construction photo:

Clinton Street railway cutting 1899. A clearer version of the photo. Thank you Mike

And another photo of railway work next to a Fothergill building turned up. This time the Nottingham and Notts Bank on Thurland Street, which is visible on the left hand side of this picture:

Thurland Street Railway Cutting (circa 1899) Thanks to Nottinghasm and Nigel for bringing this one to my attention.
This is the reverse angle. Thurland Street Bank on The Watson Fothergill Walk. Photo: Alison Cussans.

Nigel King, who is a photographer himself, then ran the Clinton Street photo through a colouriser on the My Heritage website and this brought out some remarkable details!

Here’s a colourised version – you can just see the signage on the side of the Furley & Co building. Thanks Nigel
You can even see the workmen! Thanks Matt

So you can see how a bit of research can turn up some great views of Nottingham’s past, but also how it’s very easy to get thrown off course! It’s also very difficult to credit photos correctly, the original books are full of such treasures.

If anyone knows any more about the whereabouts of the original photos from the Nottingham Historical Film Unit, please get in touch!

Travels

A Wander Around York

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Took a day to go to York, principally to visit York Art Gallery’s Ruskin, Turner & The Storm Cloud exhibition after reading Suzanne Fagence Cooper’s excellent summary of the work of John Ruskin: To See Clearly.

York Art Gallery – well worth a visit (photo: Lucy Brouwer)

2019 marks 200 years since the birth of Ruskin, this exhibition looks at his way of seeing the world through drawing and writing about what he could see and how that made him appreciate the qualities of landscape, weather, buildings and artworks.

His thoughts on looking at nature, art and buildings were very influential in their day, both Watson Fothergill and Thomas Chambers Hine would have been aware of his writings on architecture and must surely have read The Stones of Venice, which shaped how Gothic architecture was seen in the 19th century. (Hine even had Ruskin’s autograph in his scrapbook.)

In the spirit of Ruskin, I have been encouraging people to “look up” and to notice the buildings that they might otherwise miss, with particular focus on the Victorian architecture in Nottingham. Since learning more about the Gothic Revivial and influences on Fothergill’s work, I find myself noticing buildings and spotting the style when out and about, thus it was in York.

York Magistrates Court, Clifford Street, York. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

Spotting these towers on the skyline I ventured to investigate. This is the York Magistrates Court (1890-92).

York Institute, Clifford Street, York (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

Next door, York Institute (1883-85), mixing Gothic Revival with an eastern influence.

I particularly liked these faintly byzantine kiosk finials. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

Barclays Bank, (1901) had some really striking terracotta with the colour marvellously preserved.

A little further on, came upon Barclays bank with some fantastic terracotta work. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

To shelter from the rain, we popped into the Merchant Adventurer’s Hall, a timber framed medieval hall, now a museum.

Merchant Adventurers’ Hall (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

When we reached York Art Gallery, to a look round the Ruskin, Turner & The Storm Cloud exhibition, I was delighted to find that Annie Creswick Dawson’s book about Benjamin Creswick (blogs passim) was on sale in the shop.

I was particularly struck by this quote from John Ruskin, which can be applied as much to myself as to Medieval stonemasons! (Photo: Lucy Brouwer
York Minster from York Art Gallery. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)
York station, built on a curve. (Photo: Lucy Brouwer)

The more you start to look, the more you see the shapes of nature, the wonders of engineering and the beauty in the details.