In June, I visited Lichfield and called in at the Cathedral – the relevance to this project being that such a visit was a massive inspiration to Fothergill Watson when he was a trainee architect.
Lichfield Cathedral front. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Whilst working in Frederick Jackson’s office in Nottingham, Fothergill visited many buildings of architectural interest in England including Lichfield Cathedral in 1858. It was this visit to the Cathedral which really fired his enthusiasm for his chosen career, architecture. This can be seen from an entry in the Family Records, “my enthusiastic love for Gothic architecture began, a love which has grown with the years. So did it stir my zeal for architecture as a profession that I commenced to work as I had never done before, and left no stone unturned in my endeavours to thoroughly master my profession.”
In November 1903, Fothergill re-visited Lichfield Cathedral which had been the inspiration for his ambition to follow a career as an architect. He noted that it was 42 years since he last visited the Cathedral: “what a jewel among Cathedrals”. (Information from the Fothergill Watson Family Record extracted from Denis S. Kilner, PhD Thesis – Watson Fothergill: A Victorian Architect, University of Nottingham, 1978. Copy at Nottinghamshire Archives).
During my visit I spotted a stained glass window that depicts builders and architects. The Hackett Window, by Charles Eamer Kempe c. 1901 shows Bishop John Hackett (1661-70) poring over plans for the rebuilding of his cathedral which had been ‘overthrown by violent and wicked hands’ during the Civil War. (Lichfield Cathedral, A Journey of Discovery by Jonathan Foyle)
Perhaps Fothergill saw this window on his second visit in 1903? He certainly remembered the sculptural figures when he was designing his office on George Street, Nottingham!
Statues on Cathedral front, Lichfield. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Statuary on Fothergill’s George Street office, Nottingham. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Last week I braved the cold to go to Retford where there are a couple of very different examples of Fothergill’s architectural work.
Retford, in North Nottinghamshire, is not somewhere I’ve had a chance to explore before. I did a little research on its history in preparation for my visit. Retford is made up of the market town of East Retford (established around 1100) and on the other side of the River Idle, the smaller, older West Retford (mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086). In 1878 East and West Retford became a single borough.
Nowadays, Retford retains a wealth of Georgian and Victorian architecture. Buildings that are thanks to the prosperity brought to the town by the Great North Road in 1766, the Chesterfield Canal in 1777 and the railways in 1849. There is a grand town hall with market buildings, a substantial market square, several notable churches and many impressive buildings for the architecture spotter to enjoy. I recommend following the Retford Civic Society‘s Heritage Trail (leaflet from Retford Library or download directly as a pdf here.)
Retford Town Hall, 1866-8. Architects: Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Retford Town Hall, by architects Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln, is similar to another town hall they designed for Ipswich, and was described by them as “Italian style”, although it has a “slightly overblown” roof that is more like a French chateau. It was described by Pevsner as a “bad mansard roof and a bad turret”. For all that I think it’s quite a jolly building, especially with the Christmas decorations up.
The Trinity Hospital in West Retford is another significant building, not only of itself but also because the Trinity Hospital Bailiffs (administrators) were responsible for a lot of other building work that took place close by. (For an in-depth history of Trinity Hospital and its impact on Retford, see Jean M. Nicholson’s book A Godly Inheritance.)
Of particular interest to me were the buildings on Bridgegate. The street leads from the Market Square out of the centre of town on the route of the old Great North Road. Many of the buildings on the West Retford side of the river have tiles with the hospital’s TH monogram as they were owned and built by the charity. Of particular interest to me was the group around St Michael’s Place, the oldest of which, Sandrock House is by Fothergill Watson (pre-name change). In red brick with some characteristic features – a picturesque roofline with a turret and tall chimneys – the date stone reads 1877.
Research by Jean Nicholson for The Thornton Society (quoted by Darren Turner in his Fothergill Catalogue) provides clues to Fothergill’s involvement in Sandrock House. In 1876 houses belonging to Trinity Hospital on the site next to the Galway Arms were in a ruinous condition and the Bailiff John Henry Worth, who had undertaken a programme of improvement of the houses on Bridgegate, decided to replace them with a crescent to be known as St Michael’s Place.
Fothergill’s diary notes that the house was to cost £500, but it appears that it exceeded this amount and Fothergill did not complete the interiors of the house. Edwin Wilmshurst (who succeeded Mr Worth as Bailiff) noted in 1907 that he had made additions and that the inside of the house was “badly designed by Mr Fothergill Watson of Nottingham”.
Sandrock House from the back (plus spire of St Michael’s Church). Photo: Lucy Brouwer
While I was taking photos, the owner of the house came out to walk his dogs, I asked him about the house interiors, and he implied that they were not particularly remarkable and that although the house was very warm, the inside of the turret was rather damp!
Perhaps the expense of Fothergill’s design was one reason why the other two houses on St Michael’s Place were designed by local architect R. Bertram Ogle.
Tower House, 1888. Architect R. Bertram Ogle. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Tower House, 1888. Architect R. Bertram Ogle. Note TH monogram of Trinity Hospital on tiles. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Tower House with polychrome brickwork, tower and solid bay windows responds to Fothergill’s Sandrock House. Robert Bertram Ogle (1850-1908) was born in Newcastle but practised as an architect in Retford during the 1880s and 90s. He was also responsible for the rather plainer Crown House, 1902, that makes the third side of the Crescent.
Crown House 1902, Architect R. Bertram Ogle. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Crown House (detail) 1902. Architect R. Bertram Ogle. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The other building in Retford where evidence of Fothergill’s involvement has been found was, until recently, the Nat West Bank on the market square. 21 The Square is up for rent (December 2022). This building was built as a house but then became a branch of the Nottingham and Notts Bank, for whom Fothergill designed several branches (including their HQ on Thurland Street in Nottingham which features on The Watson Fothergill Walk). Fothergill made alterations to Mr Newton’s House in order to convert it into a bank and residence for the manager in 1877. It appears that Fothergill restrained his usual love of Gothic to provide a frontage more in line with the existing building.
21 The Square, with alterations by Fothergill Watson circa 1877. Photo: RightMove
21 The Square, as of December 2022. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
More Watson Fothergill Walks will be coming in 2023… meanwhile you can sign up to receive news of forthcoming dates or purchase gift vouchers to redeem against any tickets on Eventbrite.
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.
Prompted by a question about this building on the Nottingham Hidden History Facebook page…
This building on the corner of Bridlesmith Gate and Victoria Street was a bit of a mystery… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Ever since I noticed the details in the frieze above the first floor on this building I’d been wondering what the symbols, which on close inspection are an N and C overlapping and a club like you’d find in a deck of cards, could signify.
The frieze in more detail. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
When researching my Hine Hike tour, looking at the buildings of Thomas Chambers Hine, an architect whose work in Nottingham was prolific between the 1850s and 1870s, slightly predating that of Watson Fothergill, I found out more.
Along with the frieze, there are also monogrammed iron grills on the Bottle Lane side of the building.
More hidden letters in the grills on Bottle Lane. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
So what does it all mean? This rather elegant building was originally built as The Nottinghamshire County Club, set back from the road to allow the members to alight from their carriages. It was designed by Thomas Chambers Hine and his Son, George Thomas Hine who he had recently taken into partnership. The club opened in 1869.
Established in 1864, The Nottinghamshire County Club was a gentleman’s club containing billard, reading, card and coffee rooms. It also had bedrooms and “all the conveniences of a first-rate club”; there were around 200 members. Members paid a subscription and there was a reduced rate for gentlemen residing within ten miles. It was a place for meetings, a place to receive messages (for example, adverts were placed in the newspaper for items for sale and the club was used as the address to apply to). There were stewards and a secretary.
Originally there was a tourelle on this corner but it’s possible it was destroyed by the 1929 fire. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Originally the building had a tourelle on the corner but this has been removed. A severe fire in 1929 destroyed most of the club’s early records and the name doesn’t make it an easy thing to search for in a city that not only has a Notts County football team, but also NCC (Notts County Cricket) and NCC (Notts County Council)! These are unrelated to these premises.
In 1954 it was sold to the Leicester (later Alliance and Leicester) Building Society and the Club leased back all but the ground floor. Access to the first and second floors was by lift via a new entrance on Bottle Lane.
The building is featured on my Hine Hike walk looking at the life and work of Thomas Chambers Hine. I hope to run this tour again in the summer, so sign up for the mailing list for news of dates. The Hine Hike is also available as an illustrated talk, in person or via Zoom so contact me for more details to set up a session for your group.
Here’s another architect who was active around the same time as Watson Fothergill in Nottingham.
Gilbert Smith Doughty (1861-1909) came to my attention when I noticed that Fothergill was not the only architect to have his name carved on his buildings. Opposite Fothergill’s Nottingham and Notts Bank on Thurland Street you will find The Thurland Hall pub, and if the hanging basket is not too full you can find the name of the architect prominently displayed. There had been a pub here on the site of the Thurland Hall (home of The Earls of Clare) since the 1830s, but when the railway came through from the Victoria Station, the site was purchased and cleared.
Gilbert S. Doughty’s name on The Thurland Hall Pub, Pelham Street, Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Perhaps this “signature” was a little nod to Fothergill’s manner of claiming his work, or perhaps The Thurland Hall was a building of which Doughty was particularly fond. Indeed, the design had featured in The Building News and it was one of the first pubs outside London to be built by Levy & Franks, one of the very first pub chains in the country, who had pioneered the introduction of catering to public houses. They bought the site and rebuilt the pub between 1898-1900. Doughty had his office close to the original pub, at 17 Pelham Street.
The Thurland Hall from The Building News, 1902 (a print currently on sale on eBay)
Born in Lenton in 1861 to Edwin Doughty, a Lace manufacturer and his wife Annie Smith, Gilbert was the second of four children. He studied at Nottingham School of Art, and as early as age 19 he lists his profession as “architect” (in the 1881 Census when the family was living at Cavendish House, Cavendish Hill, Sherwood.) In 1880 and 1883 he won Queen’s Prizes for his designs and by 1884 the trade directories find him in an office at Tavistock Chambers on Beastmarket Hill. From 1887 he was a lieutenant in the Robin Hood Rifles, by then he had moved his office to 14 Fletcher Gate and continued to live with his father and family in Foxhall Lodge, a house he designed for them at the junction of Foxhall Road and Gregory Boulevard, opposite what was then The Forest Racecourse. (The building is currently Foxhall Business Centre).
Lieut. Gilbert S. Doughty eventually became a captain in the Robin Hood Rifles. This is an enlargement of a photo taken circa 1892 reprinted in Nottingham Evening Post, 1 June 1946. British Newspaper Archive.
The first major project (apart from houses) that there is evidence Doughty worked on was The Borough Club, on Queen’s Street. The building was demolished in the 1960s, but at the time of its design in 1893, it was newsworthy. Doughty took over the project from the Matlock architect George Edward Statham (who had worked on Smedley’s Hydro) Statham died suddenly of Scarlet Fever aged 39.
The Borough Club, next to Watson Fothergill’s building for Jessops. Photo: Flickr
Other work includes additions to CW Judge’s bakery at 59, Mansfield Road (work occasionally mistaken for that of Fothergill). In 1899 Doughty added a refreshment room (for a long time the building housed Encounters restaurant).
The Northern Renaissance style of The Borough Club survives in some of Doughty’s other city centre work including 5-9 Bridlesmith Gate (1895) Built as a showroom for furniture shop Smart & Brown, the upper floors are now occupied by Waterstones.
The former Smart & Brown furniture store, now Fatface and Waterstones, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
In a pinch, the central in the decoration of the Smart & Brown storefront might be Gilbert Smith Doughty! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
There are also two blocks of Flemish-inspired shops on Derby Road, but perhaps the most well known is the long gable range of City Buildings, Carrington Street (1896-7), with its prominent clock tower, a building known to many as the former Redmayne and Todd sports shop.
City Buildings, Carrington Street, recently renovated. Photo
Doughty lived at several addresses during his time in Nottingham, often buildings he had worked on, or close to them. In the 1901 census he and his wife May Edgcombe Rendle can be found as guests at the Portland Temperance Hotel on Carrington Street, opposite City Buildings (Incidentally, in the same census a former Fothergill assistant, architect John Rigby Poyser can be found in the Gresham Hotel, just the other side of the Carrington Street Bridge. More on these hotels in Alan Bates’ article for Nottingham Civic Society).
In 1902, Doughty lists his address as Greetwell, a house on the newly developed Manor Park estate in Ruddington (this land had been in the hands of the American industrialist Philo Laos Mills, for whom Doughty had worked on warehouses in the Lace Market, The Mills Building Plumtre Street, 39 Stoney Street and 47 Stoney Street.) Doughty’s contribution, Greetwell is still there although the house name does not survive.
Greetwell, Manor Park, Ruddington. Academy Architecture 1901, Source: Internet Archive
The Mills Building, Plumtre Street, Nottingham. Photo.
Doughty’s final Nottingham address in 1908 was a house he had built in 1905 on Private Road, Sherwood. Although the trade directories have yet another address for his office, in Prudential Buildings in the 1910 edition, by then Doughty and his wife had already left town.
How they came to be living in Prebend Mansions, Chiswick is not known, although this would have been close to his wife’s family in Brentford. This is the last known address of Gilbert Smith Doughty – he died suddenly in December 1909 in rather unfortunate circumstances.
After attempting to give a gift of a pair of gloves to a barmaid in The Roebuck pub on Chiswick High Road, Doughty was refused a drink of gin and angostura by the landlady and left the worse for drink. He was taken home and put to bed by the porter, but in the course of events hit his head on a mantlepiece (oh what irony as a design for a mantlepiece was one of his earliest achievements, gaining plaudits in 1879 while at Art School).
His wife found him dead and later at the inquest she noted that he was a heavy drinker and that the previous year he had “been sent away to a home for a time in consequence of his drinking habits”. In his article for the Civic Society, Alan Bates speculates that alcoholism might be the cause of Doughty’s somewhat patchy career, perhaps it was the reason for resigning his commission in the Robin Hoods in 1896, perhaps even the reason for the Doughty’s departure from Nottingham…?
You can read more about Gilbert Smith Doughty via The Nottingham Civic Society, where the venerable Ken Brand’s article is available in their archive. More work has been done by Alan Bates to fill in the gaps, a PDF featuring his article is available here.
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?)
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to be invited to explore Fothergill buildings. The latest of these was The Red House, on Cator Lane, Chilwell.
From the road, The Red House has a distinctive chimney that stands out from the surrounding buildings… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The Red House is listed in the Fothergill Catalogue as a “Minor Work”, as it was not originally built by the architect. However, the additions he made to the property are quite extensive.
With its very tall chimney and red bricks, The Red House stands out amid the 1930s suburban semis that make up the rest of the street. Indeed, for a long time the original house (then called Hill House) was the only building on this part of Cator Lane, it is visible on maps from around 1850 – it may have been built even earlier, around 1840 from the style of the windows in the original parts of the house.
The Red House from the back, which is now the front.. the porch is a modern addition. Photo: Lucy BrouwerThe “front” of The Red House, Fothergill’s extension includes the porch and landing above, the large bays over two floors, bay windows added to the original rooms and possibly the attic rooms. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The plans for Fothergill’s alterations were submitted in October 1895, approved in November and presumably carried out shortly after. The extension is shown on the 1900 OS map of the area. After the work, the house is called “The Red House” on maps and it is apparently the only substantial dwelling on Cator Lane until about 1930. I’ve found advertisements in newspapers from 1933 offering houses for sale (for £550 per house) on The Red House Estate on Cator Lane, most of the houses nearby look as if they were built around this date.
1933 advert in The Long Eaton Advertiser for The Red House Estate
Ian, the present owner of The Red House, gave me a tour and told me what he knows about the history of the building.
The house had been a parsonage and the client for the extension work was Frederic Chatfield Smith (1824-1905) of Bramcote Hall, at one time an MP for the area and the head of Smiths Bank in Nottingham. However, Smith did not live in the house.
There is a plaque commemorating Smith in the nearby Christ Church in Chilwell, he endowed the church but this wasn’t until 1903. He was known for his charitable work as his obituary in Nottingham Evening Post, 22 April 1905 notes:
“He manifested a warm interest in religious and philanthropic work, being an ever-generous subscriber to charitable and other institutions. He was a patron of the living of Bramcote with Attenborough, and he exercised discriminating influence in church matters.”
So did Frederick Chatfield Smith extend the house to encourage a new vicar to move to Chilwell? It seems that after the improvements the house remained as a small farm, with a quantity of pasture land and some animals. Ian has an advertisement that describes the house when it was offered for auction in the 1920s.
Auction notice for the house from circa 1921-22. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I’ve found that in 1864, the house had been lived in by the then late Joseph Morris – cited in a marriage announcement for his sixth daughter Pattie.
In 1889, the householder was The Rev. James Crabtree – so it was presumably still a parsonage at this point.
After the extension was added, I’ve found a few of the residents and some information:
Around 1898-1899 G.W. Baxter, his wife, son and daughters can be found at the house. Baxter and family rode with the Earl of Harrington’s hunt in 1898, and in April 1899 GW Baxter could be found selling a horse at the Black Boy Repository (behind the hotel?) in Nottingham. In November 1899, both he and his servants donated to the Shilling Fund.
Brigadier General Charles Tyrell Shipley CB (1863-1933) was another resident of the Red House. I’ve found a couple of photographs of him: here in uniform and here as a younger man, and something of his war record, he seems to have had an illustrious military career, commanding the 46th North Midlands Division and according to his obituary in the Nottingham Evening Post (13 Nov 1933) he lived at The Red House “before the war” (WW1).
Newspaper classified ads are another way of discovering who lived in a house. Between 1915-1918, the Barnett family various posted notices for the sale of a Great Dane puppy, an appeal to find their lost Airedale bitch, Jessie, and a “wanted ad” for a Daily Help or a good cook-general.
In both September 1919 and December 1921 the house was part of a selection of properties and land up for auction (in 1921 the tenant was cited as Mr W. Lucas). I believe the poster Ian showed me (pictured above) is from around this time.
23 Jan 1926, Nottingham Evening Post. (British Newspaper Archive). More Pigs For Sale from the Harrisons at The Red House.
Between 1923 and 1933 Kennedy William Harrison and his family were resident in the house – for several years running they annually offer for sale a litter of pigs (there was a pigsty outside the house, which is still recognisable among the outbuildings) as well as a litter of retriever puppies and “50 second season fowls in full lay” (Present owner Ian’s lockdown project was to install a small coop with hens!).
There are also reports of Mrs Harrison being involved in a motor bus accident in 1923 when a Barton Bros bus ran into a telegraph pole in Beeston. Despite being a “victim of the mishap” Mrs Harrison was “progressing satisfactorily” at the time of the report in the Beeston Gazette and Echo (6 October 1923). A company, Harrison and Hill Ltd, was formed in 1932, with Mr Harrison going into business with a certain Miss Gwendoline Hill in a firm of manufacturers and dealers of clothing and wearing apparel.
Between around 1933 and 1936, The Red House Estate was being developed on surrounding land off the newly created Brookland Drive. The builder Cecil C. Blythe advertises houses in local papers with tag lines including, “Have you visited The Red House Estate, Cator Lane? If not, why not?” the houses were “modern and labour saving” (Beeston Gazette and Echo, 4 Nov 1933). All these nuggets were found using the British Newspaper Archive.
Fothergill’s extension to The Red House. Photo: Lucy BrouwerFothergill’s extension protrudes from the square plan of the original house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Ian was keen to point out that The Red House exhibits some characteristics that bring to mind the Arts & Crafts movement – Fothergill’s attention to detail, fondness for decorative elements and good quality materials suggest at least a knowledge of William Morris and his Red House – now a National Trust property in Bexleyheath, on the outskirts of London. But “The Red House” is a common name for properties that are this colour – Fothergill’s fondness for the distinctive Mapperley Bricks might just as well be the origin of the name.
Characteristic Fothergill additions – leaded windows, decorative brickwork, nogging and a hint of polychrome. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chimney towers above the rest of the house, note Fothergill’s use of English Garden Wall bond for the brickwork. Photo: Lucy Brouwer.
Inside the house, there are some quirks of design like the decorative coving in the Fothergill drawing room, and a door that has a frame at an angle to accommodate the staircase. Fothergill appears to have moved the stairs from what was the front of the house to the back (except this is now used as the front!). It was hard to photograph and it would be useful to have the plans – if anyone with knowledge of Chilwell history knows where they might be, then please let us know!
The hall, where the original exterior wall and door have been moved to create the extension. The arch shows where the exterior wall originally stood. The unusual plasterwork panelling in the hall (which also goes upstairs) seems to be part of the work done when Fothergill extended the house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Tricky to see in a photo, but this door frame is angled so that it can fit behind the stairs…never seen one like it before! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chamfered corners in the living room are echoed in all the interiors that are part of Fothergill’s extension. Similar details exist in other houses he worked on. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Some details on the porch, which was originally the front door. A buttress, cut out patterns in the wood and brick nogging above, all features familiar from other Fothergill buildings in Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Huge thanks to Ian Paul for inviting me to look at his house!
If you live in a Fothergill building, or if you have a house whose history you’d like to explore, then Lucy might be able to help with research – please fill in the form on the contact page to send a message. Tours will be back in 2022!
During my visit to the newly reopened Nottingham Castle I spotted a few clues that point to the architect who originally transformed the ruined Ducal Palace into the first municipal art gallery outside London.
But does anything remain of “The Midland Counties Art Museum at Nottingham”?
Nottingham’s not really a castle.. it’s a Renaissance Ducal Palace you know! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Nottingham Castle’s new Rebellion Gallery does a dynamic job of telling the story of how Nottingham Castle as we know it has survived a turbulent history – from the demolition of the Norman fortress by Oliver Cromwell after the Civil War to the damage caused by protesters against the 1831 Reform Bill, when the Riot Act was read and the Duke of Newcastle’s Palace was torched – but what happened next?
Thomas Chambers Hine, prominent architect of Victorian Nottingham and the 5th Duke of Newcastle’s Surveyor of Estates, took it upon himself (along with his son George Thomas Hine) to transform the gutted shell of the building into a Public Museum and Gallery of Art and Science. All the woodwork – floors and staircases – had been destroyed in the fire so Hine added new stone staircases with cast-iron balustrades and the three floors of the palace were replaced with two, cutting through the old staterooms.
The top lit picture gallery was modelled on the Grand Gallery of The Louvre.
Picture (by Hine?) of the Gallery space now on display at Nottingham Castle. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The gallery as it is today, with the skylight still performing its function. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The Midland Counties Art Museum At Nottingham was opened by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (Later King Edward VII)and his wife, Princess Alexandra on 3rd July 1878 and the occasion was marked with a royal procession through The Park Estate.
Stained glass window (now part of the Visiting Exhibition Space – currently hosting ‘Hello, My Name Is Paul Smith’) commemorating the Royal Visit and the Castle’s Civil War associations. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
TC Hine had a fondness for local history and published a book to mark the occasion, it detailed each phase of the building’s history and was entitled: ‘Nottingham Its Castle, A Millitary Fortress, A Royal Palace, A Ducal Mansion, A Blackened Ruin, A Museum and Gallery of Art’. It was published in two editions, the first in 1876 and a second in 1879 with a supplement covering the Royal Visit.
TC Hine’s history of the Castle, now on display in the Castle! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Thanks to Google Books you can browse the pages of the book and look at some of the illustrations. (A copy is also available at Bromley House Library). In the book, “a labour of love”, Hine recounts the history of the Castle through the reign of each successive English monarch, notes significant incidents in the history of Nottingham and even lays claim to be the person who found the spiral stairs leading to the cave known as Mortimer’s Hole. As he goes through a timeline of the years, he notes important events, population figures and makes note of the buildings being built in the town. The book is almost a scrapbook (which is how it is described in the exhibition) although it actually contains printed pictures that have been stuck into each copy rather than the plates being directly printed onto the pages.
Nottingham Castle as a ruin, 1876 from Nottingham, Its Castle…” by TC Hine. Source: Google Books.
The deaths of notable personages are recorded and Hine describes buildings including the Nottingham Exchange, “standing as it does on the finest site in all England”, expressing the opinion that the building looked more like a “large retail establishment” than a public building fit to host the “Midland Counties Art Exhibition in connection with the South Kensington Museum”. He also describes the colonnades which distinguish Nottingham’s Market Place, even suggesting that they be developed as a feature, like the covered walkways of Bologna!
All in all, Hine’s book is a treasure trove of historical incidents and as he reaches years covered by his own lifetime, he notes the activities of other Nottingham architects as well as his own.
In summing up he compares the Castle, standing as it does upon a rock, to “the Acropolis at Athens or the Capitol of Rome”, and expresses the hope that ‘beauty and refinement “sweetness and light”‘ will arise from use of the Castle as a gallery and museum.
And so, we too must hope that in its latest incarnation, Nottingham Castle will continue to be such a beacon of “higher and nobler aspirations of the human mind.”
Closing paragraph of TC Hine’s ‘Nottingham, It’s Castle…” (source: Google Books)
To learn more about Thomas Chambers Hine and his buildings in Nottingham, join Lucy for her guided tour, The Hine Hike. The next date is 29 August 2021.
Tickets for this and all over events available on Eventbrite.
Three Lions may belong on a shirt… but there are four lions at Nottingham Castle that I am particularly interested in…
The four stone lion sculptures found in the grounds of Nottingham Castle… Photos: Lucy Brouwer
As I mention on the Watson Fothergill Walk, these four stone lion sculptures originally adorned the tower of the Black Boy Hotel. On a visit to the newly reopened Nottingham Castle I found them in the grounds welcoming visitors. Each one has weathered to give it an individual character and their paws look almost as if they’re raising a toast!
Two of the lions at the top of step to Nottingham Castle. Photo: Lucy BrouwerYou can just see 2 of the lions on the corners of the tower, added to the hotel by Fothergill in 1897. Picture Nottingham.
Fothergill worked on the hotel over many years, coming back to rebuild and extend it on several occasions. On the tower, added in 1897, you can make out the lions, each a standard bearer with a shield – their poles are now long gone but you can see where they would have held them in their paws.
The Black Boy Hotel c.1939
The hotel was demolished in 1970 and replaced by Littlewoods (now Primark) on Long Row. The lions have been at the Castle ever since.
Read more about The Black Boy Hotel here, or join the Watson Fothergill Walk to learn all about the building, its architect and his work in Nottingham.
Here’s another instalment in my occasional series looking at architects who were active in Nottingham at around the same time as Watson Fothergill.
Albert Nelson Bromley (1850-1934) is probably best known for his long involvement with Boots The Chemist, but he was responsible for many buildings in Nottingham ranging from schools to shops, warehouses to telephone exchanges.
Albert Nelson Bromley. Picture from Work & Sport (Bromley House Library)
Albert Nelson Bromley was born in Stafford in 1850, he was very young when his father died and the family moved to Nottingham to live with his uncle, the architect Frederick Bakewell (among his notable buildings – Nottingham School of Art, now NTU’s Waverley Building). After going to school in Nottingham and Lincoln, Bromley joined Bakewell in his office on Pelham Street and was articled as a pupil. Having joined RIBA as a fellow in 1872, he was on the point of moving to Manchester to take up a post when it was suggested that he spend some time on the continent sketching buildings.
Bromley spent 14 months in 1872-73 on an extended architectural sketching tour of Europe. In all, he visited 90 towns including Bruges, Chartres, Heidelberg, Prague, Venice, Siena, Athens and Constantinople in 9 countries. (Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Holland).
Title page, Work And Sport by A. Nelson Bromley (Bromley House Library)
In Work And Sport: Memories of An Architect, Fisherman And Golfer, which was published in 1934 towards the end of his life, he states that the object of writing the book was “mainly to reduce to readable proportions the Continental Diary of my Architectural travels during 1872-3.” On departing for his travels he was advised by an unnamed ‘Artist of Architectural subjects’ to:
“Go as an Artist with a knapsack on your back… the simplest thing – look as dirty as possible – don’t shave – wear a large slouch hat and smoke a very black pipe, you will go everywhere for half price. The guides will not bother you and the pimps and gay ladies will not give two-pence for you, as an Artist has no money.”
Without foreign languages, Bromley recalls being somewhat lonely and miserable, having left behind “a very nice girl” who was to become his wife (Elizabeth, whom he married in 1878). He did eventually meet some “rough diamonds” who were willing to stand him a drink. A sample encounter: ‘Oh I see you are an Artist – come and have a drink. Well, you will not get much out of that job.’ ‘No, I am studying for an Architect.’ ‘Oh, them blokes, well, you’ll make a bit more out of that.’
The rather hazy recollections of people and places (mostly places) in the ‘Work’ section of the book are accompanied by plates of the watercolours that Bromley made of various buildings on his travels. The rest of the book is mostly concerned with fishing. There is frustratingly little about the buildings that Bromley worked on himself.
On his return to England, he re-joined his uncle, Frederick Bakewell at his office, at 5 Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street. By 1875 they had moved to 3 1/2 Weekday Cross. One of their significant commissions was an early instance of Council Housing, the Victoria Buildings (Bath Street). Their partnership was dissolved on 15 May 1876. Bakewell died in 1881, aged 57.
Bromley went on to become the principal architect for the Nottingham School Board, after being chosen as one of the initial four practices to be commissioned to build schools (see blog on Abraham Harrison Goodall). He did some work for the Nottingham Tramway Company and built houses in Sneinton and Bulwell. Hucknall Public Library was built to Bromley’s design in 1885-6.
15 & 17 Newcastle Drive, photo: Lucy Brouwer
The precise date of the houses Bromley built in The Park Estate, including his own at 15 Newcastle Drive (originally 24 Pelham Terrace) are not confirmed (Wikipedia cites an early estimate of 1878, but The Nottingham Park Houses project plumps for circa 1890).
Bromley’s work in The Park seems to be concentrated on Newcastle Drive. He not only built numbers 15 & 17, but it is also now proven that he built 21 & 23 (records exist in the contemporary architectural photographer Bedford Lemere & Co’s archive). Glendower, the house at 27 Newcastle Drive may also be by Bromley (rather than by Watson Fothergill as is often claimed). Stylistically it has more in common with its neighbours and it lacks the richness that typifies Fothergill’s other houses in The Park. (See notes on The Park Estate in Darren Turner’s Fothergill: A Catalogue of The Works of Watson Fothergill).
Glendower was built for William Foster (perhaps the WF inscribed on the front of the house leads to connections with Watson Fothergill?). I’ve found evidence (Nottingham Journal 10 Nov 1881) that Bromley tendered for builders to work on a furniture depository for Foster’s Furniture company Foster and Cooper in 1881 and I personally don’t think this building is by Fothergill either.
Bromley was steadily busy through the 1890s, with buildings which include an office and telephone exchange for The National Telephone Company in George Street in 1898, look for the candlestick telephone motif.
Telephone Exchange, George Street. Photo: Lucy BrouwerDetail, Telephone Exchange, George Street. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Outside Nottingham, there was the baroque classicism of Telephone House built for the same company in London (1898-1902).
Other buildings still standing in Nottingham include a wholesale fruit store for Buckoll, King & Co on Parliament Street (now Argos) and offices for Wells and Hind on Fletchergate (now part of the Ibis Hotel development). Deep red terracotta facings are a noticeable feature.
Former Fruit Warehouse, Parliament Street. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Bromley is possibly best known outside Nottingham for his work for the Boots Company. He began this association with Alterations and Additions to their Island Street works in 1895. This lasted into the 1920s with stores being built around the country. In Nottingham, the company’s flagship store on the prime site of High Street and Pelham Street (now Zara) was designed in a glazed light terracotta with an air of Art Deco in the ornate shapes of the shop windows.
Former Boots Store, Corner of Pelham Street & High Street. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Details of the Boots No. 1 Store (now Zara). Note the various rather muscular putti – something that T. Cecil Howitt also liked to add to his buildings
In 1903, Thomas Cecil Howitt joined Bromley’s office as a pupil, by now they were located in the Prudential Buildings on Queen Street. Work for Boots continued into the 1900s – including the shop and cafe Boots Store No. 2, 1906, now The Embankment pub. Bromley also worked on The National Provincial Bank (now Virgin Money) 1910 (demolished and rebuilt when the Council House was built by Thomas Cecil Howitt circa 1927) and additions and alterations were made to the Long Row/ Market Street Griffin & Spalding department store (until very recently Debenhams) 1910, with more work on the store in the post-WW1 years.
Bank on High Street/ Long Row. Photo: Lucy BrouwerGriffin & Spalding (Debenhams on the day it closed). Photo: Lucy BrouwerMore Body Building Putti. Debenhams frontage. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Harry Graham Watkins joined the firm and became a partner and they ran a London office for a time – Thomas Cecil Howitt notes on his CV that he was the manager in 1908. The majority of their work was probably on bank branches, Boots stores and Telephone Exchanges around the UK. The Boots stores were often designed with a nod to the local vernacular or historical styles. An incomplete list of branches includes Beeston, Derby, Exeter, Gloucester, Kingston-on-Thames, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, Winchester and York. For more on Boots stores around the UK, read the excellent Building Our Past blog.
Just before WW1 Bromley visited New York, Boston and Washington in the USA. He noted that the skyscrapers in New York assumed ‘the appearance of a fretful porcupine.’
In the 1930s, Watkins retired and the practice was joined by Bromley’s grandson Thomas Nelson Cartwright and the rather elusive Thomas Herbert Waumsley. Bromley celebrated his 80th birthday in 1930, so how active he was in the new partnership is debatable. Cartwright went on to join the firm established by Robert Evans Jr in a partnership that became Evans, Cartwright and Wollatt in 1948.
Albert Nelson Bromley died in August 1934 at his home 15 Newcastle Drive. His buildings, as Ken Brand notes, are neither distinctly Victorian nor blatantly Modern(e) but there is a certain feeling of neatness and proportion. His Evening Post obituary summed up his involvement in the appearance of the city:
‘…Mr Bromley was as keenly concerned about the preservation of the amenities of town and country as he was about his personal affairs, He strove… to arouse the public mind to the loss of beauty caused by such blots as ribbon buildings, hideous advertisements, ugly or inharmonious buildings, and the demolition of historic places.’
