Jill Sparrow

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Everything posted by Jill Sparrow

  1. That's my Fred and Ginger staircase! I used to dream of dancing down there when I was a child!
  2. Kate didn't hit people. She just threw things at them...and never missed...or savaged them verbally. There was also the bread knife!
  3. Bet the postman had to bring the cards in his red van, there would be so many! They'll be on over time at the Hallmark factory this week, making up for the loss!
  4. Such a shame. All these buildings destroyed and what have we gained in their place? Tat, mainly. No character or elegance.
  5. You little beggar, Benjamin! You never said! Rumour has it that all his exes have sent him a birthday card and there's none left in the whole of the east Midlands! A big hug from me, Ben. Liberty bodice wearers live to a ripe old age!
  6. It wouldn't be Bulwell, Loppy, or anywhere else in the UK. Mum would be behind bars for assault and the teacher would have lost their job for permitting it! How did our parents cope, eh?
  7. Oh yes, I remember the smell of lunch which used to waft upstairs. They got outside caterers in but I'm not sure this was for tax commissioner meetings as at one point they started inviting local business owners round for lunch. Trying to drum up business, no doubt! Always loads of garlic involved! I think my friend, Christine, used to attend the meetings as she was Christopher Allen's clerk. We used to call him Big C! Affectionately so. Always had a drawer full of Kit Kats which he wasn't supposed to eat! Christopher's father, Percival, was clerk to the governors of Th
  8. The flats were new when I started at Manning. Even to my 11 year old eyes they were a monstrosity. I've never liked modern buildings. I can appreciate that some who were rehoused there gained central heating, running hot water, loos and bathrooms but those facilities could have been installed in the older properties without destroying the communities who lived there.
  9. I know which I prefer and it's not the flats!
  10. Yes, it was many years after I left that W&A closed down. A shame because it was a nice firm to work for but it grew too big and dissent arose. I remember the tax meetings, although I wasn't involved in them. I believe they were held in the boardroom which was one of the few rooms in the building still in its original state. I think Christopher Allen presided at tax meetings. Nice chap, 6 foot plus with a good sense of humour and a booming voice. Articled clerks were scared of him but he was always ok with me.
  11. I vaguely recall taking some legal documentation to the QMC before it was completed or up and running as a hospital. Went in a taxi and it waited for me while I wandered around what was, basically, a construction site. Wouldn't be allowed today! The Elf would not approve.
  12. Been speaking to a friend and former colleague from Warren & Allen. She, too, was fascinated by the building and its history. She is also a former Manning girl! She informed me that the firm was started by Percival Allen's father in 1897. Mr Warren, apparently, had a son who was meant to come into the firm but was killed during The Great War, hence the severed Warren connection. It was Christine who had a copy of the Gawthern diary and allowed me to borrow it. Its contents brought the house to life for me. I was also reminded that Percival Allen, as a v
  13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Gawthern Link to an article about Abigail Gawthern. It mentions 26 Low Pavement.
  14. Freeths was a much grander building and less knocked about inside. It had two staircases, the main stairs and what would have been the back stairs for the servants. Both were lavishly carpeted. The stairs at number 24 had no carpet at all!
  15. Ah, CT has yet again come up with interesting info. In 1870, there are two houses, or offices, 24 and 26. I assume the split may have occurred in the mid 1800s but am not sure. Warren & Allen was an old firm. By the time I worked there, no one could remember who Warren was...although clients sometimes asked to see him!...and the Allen family were represented by Percival Allen, his two sons Christopher and Peter. All three are, I believe, now deceased but the original Allen was Percival's grandfather. This would certainly take the firm back into the 1850s or earlier, although I'm not sure w
  16. CT's photo of the back view of 24 Low Pavement has certainly got me thinking! Although, in my day, there were two entrance doors at the front to 24 and 26, there is only one central door at the rear which makes me wonder whether it was originally one house, being split later on? The addition to the left side of the building puzzles me. The staircase ran up the inside of the gable wall and on the first floor, a doorway at the top of the stairs on the right led into the cashier's office. This room then led into an inner office, down some steps, at the end of which was the strongroom.
  17. This shows Willoughby House with the gable end of 24 Low Pavement on the left. The black doorway was the staff entrance where we went in before the front door was opened at 9am. Interesting to see CTs shot from the rear. I never saw that view when I worked there. Looks like a later addition to the original Georgian building which wasn't visible from the front.
  18. Mention the Golden Ratio to an architect these days and the response is likely to be "Yer wot?" as they wipe their nose across their sleeve. If it's not constructed of breeze blocks, concrete and plastic and doesn't look as though it's about to keel over sideways, it stands no chance of winning the the coveted perspex, lopsided, environmentally friendly, locally sourced, worth all of 20p award. Both the award and the building are guaranteed to drop to bits in 6 months time! Bring back Tudor England!
  19. I think you have to be nuts these days to qualify as an architect, Ian! You're not allowed to design anything aesthetically pleasing! It might offend someone.
  20. My office at number 24 overlooked the back of the building and, looking directly down from my window, I could see the remains of what had once been a 3 tier stone fountain. The stone basins had been filled in with concrete but Abigail Gawthern mentions the cook placing freshly baked pies on the rim of the fountain, to cool. Elf & Safety wouldn't approve! I was always puzzled by the domestic offices at number 24 as they seemed very small. There was a former pantry which housed our photocopier and had enormously thick walls and what must have been the kitchen. It retained some of
  21. Yes, that's it, CT. I think 24 and 26 now operate as a restaurant and the interior is probably even more wrecked than it was when I worked there! The former chapel looks to be still there.
  22. Presumably you mean the Bromley House garden........It is now totally overshadowed by the student building which replaced the Odeon. Oh, I give up! Which soulless moron designed that? Totally out of place and without character!
  23. Next door to number 24 Low Pavement was Willoughby House, occupied by solicitors, Freeth Cartwright & Sketchley. That building was much larger and grander than number 24 but it, too, had a garden at the rear and a building at the bottom of it which had once been a private chapel. I was fascinated by both 24 and Willoughby House where I went fairly regularly to use the fax machine when they first came out because we didn't have one! The grand rooms in both buildings had been partitioned off into offices but the superb marble fireplaces were still there. The servant accommodation
  24. For some years, I worked at 24 Low Pavement when it was a solicitors office. It was a Georgian townhouse, originally the home of the Gawthern family. Abigail Gawthern kept a diary which was published and which I found fascinating reading. She mentions attending dances at The Assembly Rooms which, when I worked on Low Pavement, had become the post office. Underneath number 24 were cellars from which led caves. Our central heating boiler was sited in the cellar which was accessed by a door under the ornate Georgian staircase. Around 1980, a replacement boiler was being installed. At
  25. They'll be on here for ever! Ben's had more conquests than Maude's had hot dinners!