Nottingham photos

[Maidmarian]

Good idea !

Suggest meeting-place / time / date ?

 

[Rock Bottom]

The Commercial, I suppose, but I ain't been out on the piss for a bit. The Vic - next door to work at Siemens - seems to be the nicest around here, but I've only been once.

My ex-local too - well, between that and the Crown - both Kimberley Ales joints.

The commercial was always good for Saturday afternoon pool.

I lived in Beeston all my childhood life. Actually on and off until the age of 25. TBH, it's not a bad suburb of Nottingham, and I have been to most.

As the ed was saying with his photos, Nottingham is a city of contrasts. It's an ugly city with a few incidental areas of beauty. Incidentally, I find the Broadmarsh centre fascinating despite (or maybe because of) its vulgarity - exit by the right of the Bus Station, head towards High Pavement, and you're in for a bit of a treat. Nottingham also has a combination of some of the most open-minded and closed-minded people in the country sharing the same proximity. It is extremely culturally diverse. My mother teaches at Forest Field's primary, and there are only ever about 2 white kids in her class of 30-odd.

Everything bad which is happening to Nottingham is happening nationwide - for instance, the chain shops and bars shooting up everywhere, which have - over time - destroyed a lot of the character that Nottingham once had. England, for me, is a culturally bereft country, and Nottingham is suffering just as much as most cities. I used to despise the civic society - usually elderly retired people stubbornly oppossed to change. Now, as I think about the negative influence society is having on the landscape I once considered home, I support them whole-heartedly. Either build wisely, or preserve what little culturally significant landmarks you have remaining.

 

[8ball]

Good idea !

Suggest meeting-place / time / date ?

Is this a town meetup or a Beeston meetup?

Urban t-shirts to identify or a cryptic item of clothing that alludes to username? (unless you've all met already and I'm the odd one out here)

 

[mauvais]

I lived in Beeston all my childhood life. Actually on and off until the age of 25. TBH, it's not a bad suburb of Nottingham, and I have been to most.

Aye, it's perfectly pleasant. It's just not really for me. I much prefer the big city - Paris or Manchester in particular - or failing that, somewhere really scenic and interesting, like on the coast. My main hobby is photography and I just haven't found anything to capture my imagination round here.

Nice enough place, but fields don't do it for me! Clocked up over 400 miles on my bike so far, so it's good for that, but not quite enough for me yet - perhaps it's just a case of needing to explore further but I'm beginning to suspect not.

 

[k_s]

I love the 'tree' picture, i've seen that before but it never quite seemed worth the walk home- up a bloody big hill- to get my camera.

I live somewhere in nottingham (not sure where yet as I'm not sure which of my mates gets the dubious honour of putting me up for the forseeable future) and have done for a few years now. It has its nice places but they often take some finding.

 

[mauvais]

Dunno about time, place, details etc - any suggestions? Can do a proper thread if we get some basic ideas together

 

[k_s]

Two of my favourite nottingham pictures. I always tend to use monochrome in notts, can't imagine why...

If people are meeting up i recomend the malt cross- worth a visit just for the building but the beer is good too

 

[lang rabbie]

Aye, it's perfectly pleasant. It's just not really for me. I much prefer the big city - Paris or Manchester in particular - or failing that, somewhere really scenic and interesting, like on the coast. My main hobby is photography and I just haven't found anything to capture my imagination round here.

[childhood nostalgia]
You should have lived there in the 1970s while Wilford power station was still there and before they put scrubbing kit on the 1960s Trent Valley power stations.

You got proper acrid coal darkened mist and fog back then.

The Camera Club exhibitions in Beeston Library used to be full of local snappers' takes on Monet's Impression, soleil levant from various vantage points across from Bramcote to Wilford hills or moody scenes of the (now mostly demolished) textile mills of Beeston and nearby parts of the Erewash valley)[/childhood nostalgia]

 

[Maidmarian]

Actually , most of the mills are still here, although one (on Wollaton Rd) burned down about 20yrs ago.

The big one , Anglo-Scotian Mills, is now "Luxury Apartments" ---- still a nice building though.

 

[lang rabbie]

Actually , most of the mills are still here, although one (on Wollaton Rd) burned down about 20yrs ago.

The big one , Anglo-Scotian Mills, is now "Luxury Apartments" ---- still a nice building though.

I remember that spectacular 1984 fire at Swiss Mills (Pollards). But I also remember the wanton demolition of Myfords (originally Neville's Works) which used to dominate the Chilwell Road skyline and is now just a parking lot, and the demolition of the Silk Mill - allegedly just before it could be listed, when it was realised that more of the structure dated from before the 1831 Reform Bill riot and fire than had been realised .

I much preferred those dark, satanic mills of old Beeston to the bland suburban town of today.

And as for why the nanny state forbids sending small children up chimneys...

 

[Paul Russell]

One of my student friends zillions of years ago had a flat in this building. It was great.

I think. It was sooo long ago.

 

[k_s]

Actually , most of the mills are still here, although one (on Wollaton Rd) burned down about 20yrs ago.

The big one , Anglo-Scotian Mills, is now "Luxury Apartments" ---- still a nice building though.

Many of the old industrial buildings around canning circus and the arboretum are being turned into yuppie flats or student accomodation- my mates were squatting an unused one recently but got a boot in their behinds from the council

 

[Maidmarian]

Yep , same all over isn't it !

That building in the picture is on the corner of Derby Rd & Barrack Lane, The Park isn't it ?

 

[Maidmarian]

I remember that spectacular 1984 fire at Swiss Mills (Pollards). But I also remember the wanton demolition of Myfords (originally Neville's Works) which used to dominate the Chilwell Road skyline and is now just a parking lot, and the demolition of the Silk Mill - allegedly just before it could be listed, when it was realised that more of the structure dated from before the 1831 Reform Bill riot and fire than had been realised .

I much preferred those dark, satanic mills of old Beeston to the bland suburban town of today.

And as for why the nanny state forbids sending small children up chimneys...

Dunno about the one on Chilwell High Rd ---- it had gone before I came here I think --- but I can't place the parking lot

Much of the Beeston silk mill still stands actually , but it's hardly recognizable as such.



Anyhoo ---------- who's up for a Beeston meet-up then ?

 

[refugee]

Anyhoo ---------- who's up for a Beeston meet-up then ?

Me please, miss.

 

[Paul Russell]

That building in the picture is on the corner of Derby Rd & Barrack Lane, The Park isn't it ?

Spot on, I think. Barrack Lane sounds right -- don't know why I remember that, it's 20 years since I was in Nottingham.

I remember there were some interesting houses in the Park District. Just after the general election we crashed (and soon got chucked out of) Alan Simpson's house party. He had failed to beat Martin Brandon-Bravo (great name for a Tory MP!).

 

[refugee]

......Alan Simpson's house party..

He wasn't living in the Park then, was he? I thought he was still up "Donkey Hill" in St Anns?

 

[Paul Russell]

It was the Labour post-election (defeat) party in a house in the Park.

I thought it was Alan Simpson's own home but I could very well be wrong. Damn!

He wasn't living in the Park then, was he? I thought he was still up "Donkey Hill" in St Anns?

 

[Maidmarian]

Nah , that wan't his house .


OK ----- what about Fri, Sept 8th @ the Vic , then ?

 

[Paul Russell]

Ha.

If you mean the house in the picture, I didn't mean that one. If you know what I mean.

The (allegedly) Alan Simpson thing was just a big house in the middle of the Park. I jumped from one topic to another without really explaining that.

OK, I'm going to shut up about Alan Simpson's (non) house somewhere in the middle of the Park now. It was a crap anecdote anyway.

[tries to think of an interesting Nottingham-related anecdote]

Erm, I saw Rod Hull at Nottingham station once. That's about it...

Nah , that wan't his house .

 

[Maidmarian]

No ---- I knew you didn't mean the one in the picture, & it still wasn't his house !

<wracks brains to think of something interesting to say next ------>

Oh ! Did you know Beeston was the first place in Britain to have wheelie-bins ?

 

[Paul Russell]

Oh ! Did you know Beeston was the first place in Britain to have wheelie-bins ?

I didn't know that. I spent several days in Beeston and never realised that it was the birthplace of the wheelie-bin. Makes you look at it in a whole new light.

 

[Mogden]

I see you mentioned the Meadows. Ummm interesting places round there.

I do like Notts train station mind. Much nicer to look at than Derby especially as we're having all that building work done and there's barely room for a coffee cup on some of the platforms.

 

[editor]

I see you mentioned the Meadows. Ummm interesting places round there.

Someone wrote to me suggesting that I must have had the jaw-lanterned determination of Dirty Harry to stroll through the Meadows.

Maybe I missed something, but it didn't look that bad to me at all - certainly nowhere as daunting as, say, some streets in my manor or around Cardiff.

Or was I joyfully oblivious to it all?

 

[Maidmarian]

Much nicer to look at than Derby

Isn't EVERYTHING ? !!!! (Except Middlesborough)


No ed , the Meadows isn't at all bad really, I used to do some teaching in a Community Centre in the middle of the place , never saw anything untoward------- mind you , I wasn't playing around with guns or dealing crack either !

Most of the really heavy stuff in Nottingham is to do with turf-wars (not that THAT makes it OK).

 

[refugee]

Most of the really heavy stuff in Nottingham is to do with turf-wars

And not unknown between the Meadows and St Anns.

 

[Mogden]

Yeah I guess it's not so bad but when we wandered back through from the Test at Trent Bridge the other month we got a whole line up of buggies, mums and kids coming out to watch us

Work colleague of mine is from St Anns. He doesn't deny the reputation it holds! Not him personally, he's a lovely fella but says the place is as you would imagine.

*puts down spade*

Parts of Derby are nice. There's the lovely buildings in the city centre if you look up. Over New Look is quite nicely featured, and I am being serious here, and there's the Standing Order which, although a Wetherspoon's pub, still has that wonderful ceiling from the days as a bank.

 

[Flashman]

At least Derby isn't full of cunts though.

Notts has a ridiculous crime rate AND has the most right-wing uni in the country, you can keep your pretty buildings and Robin Hood, the people are simply too horrid which is a shame.

Trent Bridge is ace but after the cricket I can't wait to leave the place (sometimes after a few jars in the Trip which is grand).

 

[lang rabbie]

Notts has a ridiculous crime rate

High, but not ridiculous...

Nottingham NOT capital for crime
Earlier this week, and not for the first time, Nottingham was vilified as ‘the gun crime capital of the UK’, ‘the most violent place in Britain’ and ‘Assassination City’. Nottingham is none of these things and Nottingham does not deserve this reputation. Nottingham does have crime problems, just like many other cities in this country and no one is denying that some of these problems are extremely serious and challenging.

To portray Nottingham as being exceptional or having higher levels of gun crime or murder or violence than every other town or city is unfair, reckless and untrue. We would say that, wouldn’t we? But it’s not just talk. It’s not spin. It’s fact.

Nottingham is NOT assassination city

According to Home Office figures, the number of recorded homicides per head of population in Nottinghamshire in 2003/04 was fractionally above the national average and lower than no fewer than nine other areas, including West Yorkshire, Cumbria and Humberside.

Nottingham is NOT the gun crime capital of the UK

In 2003/04 Nottinghamshire had less than half the number of recorded firearm offences in Merseyside. There were five times as many in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. Per head of population, Nottinghamshire’s rate was actually the fifth highest.The BBC also reported on Monday that gun crime in Nottinghamshire fell by 28% in 2004.

Nottingham is NOT the most violent place in Britain

In 2003/04 the number of recorded violence against the person offences per head of population in Nottingham was lower than in 17 other Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership areas, including Blackpool, Peterborough and Hull.

 

[lang rabbie]

AND has the most right-wing uni in the country,

Bit of a generalisation that! Faculty members, student body, or just a few unrepresentative student hacks?

Both Nottingham Uni (and increasigly Nottingham Trent's) undergradates are disproportionately middle class, well-off, complacent and politically apathetic, but Ghengis Khan they ain't.

[Disclaimer: It is however, perfectly alright to hate such students when a gaggle of them discover your local that was previously "a local pubs for local people" -although housetrained postgrad researchers are tolerated]