[Good to be with you!]

What's all this 'I love Derby', Nottstalgians?. I think the recent snow has had an adverse effect on some of you.

Not on me, it aint!

I live here and I can't stand the place.......but don't get me started!

[Good to be with you!]

We had an aunt and uncle who lived in Ilkeston at the bottom end in a house on Belvoir Street.

It was always Bell Voya street to us, never Beever street as it should have been!

[Mount Street Bus Station]

Used to be The Friar Tuck Cafe when I used to get a bus to Watnall in the 70's. Have fond memories of Mount St, as the bus drivers would wait for me if my train was late getting in from Leicester.

Yes indeed, I'd totally forgotten about the Friar Tuck Cafe!

[dog and partridge pub]

I know this has been mentioned already but the book 'Memories of Nottingham' implies that the shops were completed around 1962.

The same book contains a picture of Parliament St. with construction of Vic Centre well under way and the shops totally gone, the date is 1970.

So, incredible as it seems, that parade of shops only lasted about seven years!

[Mount Street Bus Station]

I have very vague and distant memories of the old Mount Street bus station because I was only a lad towards the end of it's existance but we used to get a Midland General bus home, some were on the stand and some used to be parked on a bit of ground next to a big hoarding.You were never sure if you were allowed to get on the ones which were parked there.

Can anyone remember Churchill's Cafeteria which used to be just below the platforms?

As for the new Mount Street bus station, well it was a bit of a disaster! Wasn't just one of the shop units occupied for a time? I seem to remember a newagent/tobacconist or something.

The worst thing about it was the fact that the official approach for passengers was via the subway under Maid Marion Way but more often than not it was a last minute rush and you would run across the road and jump over the railings on the central reservation.

The bus station entrance was then through the boarded up concrete units and didn't feel a safe place after dark.

It actually still exists today. If you walk down Cumberland Place and look over the edge of the wall, you can still see the platform although some buildings have been added now.

[The Lost Weekend.]

Aha! that's interesting. Well it may have done occasional gay nights but it certainly wasn't on Saturdays.

I think there's sometimes a bit of confusion between the name of a club and the name of a night which someone puts on at a club.

Sometmes if a certain night becomes very popular, people tend to quote the name of it rather than the correct name of the venue.

I only knew it as the Lost Weekend and I'm guessing it would have been 10 - 12 years ago.

[The Lost Weekend.]

Has anyone else noticed that The Lost Weekend on Huntingdon Street has opened up again?

It has a new name though, it's called 'Breeze Club' now.

I had some fantastic nights in that place about 12 years ago. I remember one Saturday night, a queue going right round the corner into Union Road.

I never thought anyone would take it on again after being unused for years.

I don't think it will be anything like it used to be though, I think the new owners are aiming mainly at student nights.

Funny, isn't it, how it seems only students can afford to go out every night!

Did anyone else go to the Lost Weekend back in the day?

[dog and partridge pub]

Many thanks, incredible!

It looks fairly substantial but when you think of the weight of the shops above!

All the pictures of Victoria always seem to be of the other end!

[dog and partridge pub]

Here's my first contribution and what an interesting subject it is!

There's one thing I'm not quite clear about.

If the new parade of shops extended from the Milton's Head down to the Original Dog and Partridge

and it was built while Victoria Station was still open and trains still running,

then trains must have passed directly underneath Boots shop.

How was this achieved? Presumably the shops went back a fair way, so were they built on some sort of concrete raft above the tracks?

[Good to be with you!]

Hello everybody,

I'm ChrisB, just joined today, can't remember how I found this site, I just did!

I had to sign up because there's lots of fascinating stuff on here which I'm looking forward to contributing to.

I do have a terrible secret however, which is bound to come out so I may as well admit it now

I'm from Derby! I do hope you won't hold that against me!