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.
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!”
Thanks to everyone who has joined a Watson Fothergill Walk so far this summer, it’s been great to get back out there and explore Nottingham’s Victorian Architecture with you all.
It’s always pleasing when people say things like “I’ve walked past this a thousand times but never noticed it before!” or tell their own stories about the buildings.
Here are dates for walks in September 2021, click through for details and tickets:
I’m also doing a short taster walk for Heritage Open Days in partnership with Debbie Bryan’s shop in the Lace Market. tickets for this introduction to the architecture of the Lace Market are free but must be booked via Debbie Bryan’s website.
Lace Market Guided Tour 11 September, 2pm This is a shorter walk looking at the architecture around St Mary’s Gate including Thomas Chambers Hine’s Adams and Birkin Warehouses.
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.
I have set up a TripAdvisor page for the Watson Fothergill Walk. It would be great to reach a wider audience and introduce them to this most interesting of Nottingham architects! If you’ve enjoyed the walk, please leave a review – it would be a great help. You can also post photos if you have some.
I look forward to seeing some of you again on future walks… I have plans for more Hine Hikes and a Carrington Crawl to look at some of Fothergill’s domestic architecture… coming soon!
I’ve been busy reading, researching and thinking about new walks and talks for the new year. But I’m ready to get out walking again, so I’ve set up some dates for The Watson Fothergill Walk in February and March 2020.
The first walk, which will start at 10am outside Nottingham Tourism Centre and finish at Debbie Bryan on St Mary’s Gate, will take place on 16 February. Tickets are £12 each and include coffee or tea and cake at the end of the walk.
It is once again likely that I will be adding afternoon walks to these dates if there is sufficient demand, so if you prefer to start at 1pm, please get in touch to express an interest…
On June 21 Nottingham’s Creative Quarter are celebrating the longest day of the year with their Lightest Night summer party. There will be some later than usual opening for businesses around the Lace Market area, as part of these events I will be running my Beauty in the Details Lace Market Heritage tour, a short walk around the history of St Mary’s Gate in conjunction with Debbie Bryan’s shop.
Beauty in the Details is a shorter walk, on even terrain that is suitable for those who don’t want to walk too far or for too long. This tour will be about 45 minutes in total with time for refreshments at Debbie Bryan before and after and then chance to attend the Lightest Night event at St Mary’s Church afterwards. Starts at 5pm, Friday 21 June, 2019 at Debbie Bryan Shop.
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.
As the walks have been selling out (thanks everyone!) I’ve added a new date for the evening edition of the Watson Fothergill Walk. This one will begin at 6pm on 16 May 2019. Tickets are available here.
Join me to explore the distinctive buildings of this most singular Nottingham architect. The walk starts at Nottingham Tourism Office by the Council House and concludes at Fothergill’s pub, itself one of Watson Fothergill’s buildings, by Nottingham Castle. Tickets are £12.
There are still just one ticket left for The Hine Hike on 14 April, starting at 10am. Join me to discover some of the Nottingham buildings of architect Thomas Chambers Hine.Tickets are £12 and include a drink and a cake at Debbie Bryan at the conclusion of the walk (approx 2 hours).
I’m giving a talk about Fothergill and Thomas Cecil Howitt, architect of The Council House. Tickets £5
Finally, Nottinghamshire Archives have invited me to talk about Watson Fothergill and another great Nottingham architect, Thomas Cecil Howitt on 10 May at 2.30pm. I will be looking at Fothergill’s buildings that are close to Slab Square and also The Council House and Exchange, which celebrates its 90th birthday, having opened on 22 May 1929. Tickets are £5 and include an opportunity to examine archive materials relating to both architects.
Can’t make any of these dates but still interested? Sign up for my mailing list to receive news of new walk dates as soon as they are confirmed.
