Where and what was this building?


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Baz

If I am reading your message correctly , I think you mean that in the report in the Victorian Nottingham book it states that the fire was on the 4th July .

Haven't checked that as they are difficult books to search but I can see what may have happened .

As you say the post card with news of the fire , on the previous page , was dated 3rd July 1904 .

The fire was actually on Saturday 2nd July 1904 .

Trawling the news archives , it is actually difficult to find much about the fire and I can't see anything from the Notts papers around that date . Whether those Notts papers are lost I am not sure .

All of the other regional papers around the country , carrying the story , are dated 4th July which was the Monday following the fire and hence the first available publishing date and perhaps where the writers of Victorian Nottingham got their info .

This is typical of the story from other regional papers :

ALARMING FIRES.
serious fire broke out at the Midland Exhibition of Home Industries at Nottingham on Saturday evening. The Fire Brigade prevented the spread of the flames to the main buiiding but damage to the amount of several thousands of pounds was done.,
South West, England
04/07/1904

BIG FIRE AT NOTTINGHAM EXHIBITION. FOREST F.C. STAND DESTROYED. A serious fire occurred at Nottingham on Saturday evening, by which the greater portion the Midlands

Exhibition and the main stand of the Nottingham Forest Football Club, on the City Ground, Central Fire Station about nine o'clock, and three steamers attended.
The fire broke out near the fairy river, at the rear of the exhibition, the scenery from some unexplained cause getting alight. The flames spread with startling rapidity,
the American?? of the exhibition, proved successful. and in an hour's time the fire had been got well under. There were a few hundred people in the exhibition at the time of the outbreak, but only a few were in the rear part, and all got out without any trouble whatever........separating the exhibition from the Nottingham Forest Football Ground
got alight, and. despite the efforts of the brigade, the flames spread to the main football stand, which in a very short space of time was reduced to a smouldering wreck.
The Canadian water chute, and the Nottingham Forest, Football Club, the damage to their stand being between £3.000 and £4,000, which only partially covered by insurance.
Coming on the top of a bad season, this is very unfortunate for the club. It supposed that the fire originated through......
Derby Daily Telegraph
East Midlands, England
04/07/1904
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I don’t mind Plantfit getting the glory, so long as I get a chip off Brew at the next meet-up 

Cottam Power Station now stands on this land and Cottam is in Notts.   

Seems Lizzie is correct, I apologise for doubting you and you may nick a chip from me anytime you like. As we can see in the link the photo is from the CEGB so presumably something to do with the

Posted Images

There are similarities....and differences

both-2.jpg

Down around where the traffic lights are in front of the Midland Station there was a small kiosk. Between early 1958 and July 1960, said kiosk was inhabited by yours truly every weekday morning - early (6.00am to 8:30). I had progressed from delivering newspapers to selling them - working for W.H Smith and Sons. This was all before racing off to school.

When I turned up at 6 it was already stocked with the days papers and magazines, with a small float in the cash drawer. At 8:30 I would pull down the rollerblind at the front, cash up, lock the door on leaving, and take the proceeds back to the main shop. I presume they kept an inventory.

Given that on occasions there would be a queue of besuited gentlemen all heading to catch their trains demanding my immediate attention with money in outstretched hands, the management never had any complaints about the balance. They tried valiantly to get me to take a ful time job with them when left school, but I went off and joined the air force. Think it would have been January 1958, as there was some requirement that I had to be 14 to get the job, and I started on my Birthday. Still have a soft spot for Nottinghams Midland Station, it was where I started my working career, at the age of 14.

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Down around where the traffic lights are in front of the Midland Station there was a small kiosk. Between early 1958 and July 1960, said kiosk was inhabited by yours truly every weekday morning - early (6.00am to 8:30).

I remember it, and it continued to be there long after you'd moved on! In fact it's one of those things where I hadn't noticed it had disappeared, so I couldn't say when it closed down.

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I've spent some time trying to find a photo which shows the place clearly (and whether it was indeed called the Matchbox) but I can't come up with anything useful. All I've discovered is that by the 90s, the shop had gone and the space had been filled in to be occupied by nothing more than a cash machine.

midlan.jpg

Meanwhile back on the original subject of this thread, the Exhibition Centre and the Plaza etc, here's another variation on the theme, the Palace Theatre.

palac-1.jpg

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Baz ,

Have had a skim through all the Iliffe and Bagguleys volumes of Victorian Nottingham I have and still can't find that quoted article on the fire.

The Nottingham Daily Express as far as I know hasn't been digitised so doesn't show up in the searches of the newspaper archives from the time .

I still say that they must have read the article in the paper from 1904......which may have just reported the fire, without saying what day it occurred and used the date of publication of the paper as the date of the fire , when it actually occurred 2 days previously .

So , thanks to your diligence and showing the date stamp of that postcard, those internet results that quote 4th July 1904 as the date of the Midlands Exhibition of Home Industries fire at Nottingham are wrong !

The fire was on Saturday 2nd July 1904 .

Nottstalgia rules ! Phew !

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Interesting before and after view .

The first looks like it has part of the exhibition in the background (so before 1904) on a very narrow Trent Bridge .

The second showing the Pavilion Cinema that closed in 1927 . (The bridge widened 1924-26 ).

The third pic shows the Palace Theatre 1927-1931 .

Became the Plaza from 1932-1942

9826558373_b85d62e69a_b.jpg

9826481165_c5e671ee09_b.jpg

9826557343_8ec4c15103_b.jpg

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midlan.jpg

Thanks for that Cliff Ton. That was my shop an aaawwwfully long time ago. If I remember correctly there was only room for one person behind the counter with the door shut. So on the odd occasion when the management came to visit thay had to stand outside and chat. Between Jan 1958 and July 1960, the only times it was open was between 6:00am and 8:30am weekdays when Alison was in attendance. It really was MY shop. A school teacher at Mundella seemed quite surprised to hear that I ran it all on my own at 14. Must have been quite at good at counting the pennies, as W.H.Smiths were quite keen on me joining them when i left school.

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Thanks for that Cliff Ton. That was my shop an aaawwwfully long time ago. If I remember correctly there was only room for one person behind the counter with the door shut. So on the odd occasion when the management came to visit they had to stand outside and chat.

Alison, you haven't mentioned one feature of your shop which I'm sure I remember. Didn't it come out on the other side of the station building, i.e. inside the entrance area? Like this.......

shop-3.jpg

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I remember the shop when I used to work on Nottingham station in the early 80s. It was handy for the staff to get their ciggys etc. Trouble is, I only worked there at night. I was in the sidings normally on day shifts. It was always shut when I was on nights (as you would expect). That part of Nottingham station used to be quite eerie at night.

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Alison, you haven't mentioned one feature of your shop which I'm sure I remember. Didn't it come out on the other side of the station building, i.e. inside the entrance area? Like this.......

shop-3.jpg

Never thought to mention it. That's how I got in, and when management came to chat, which didn't happen often, they would knock on the door, which I always kept locked. First thing of a morning I would collect the keys from the main shop on the concourse. Let myself in and then unlock the roller blind and push it up. And I was open for business, often to a small queue of regulars at 6:00am already already. In the two and half years I never missed a single day or was late opening. My customers depended upon it. Note: I only sold newspapers and magazines. No ciggies, lollies or such. Did have a few books, for the cricket fans. Somebodies almanac? Wisden??

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I seem to have hijacked this thread, hope no one minds if I continue. Bank holidays I used to push a trolley up and down the Midland Station platforms selling newspapers and magazines. The trolley had two racks tilted together joined at the top. I always knew when a holiday makers, day at the seaside, train was coming through, and when they were playing cricket at Trent Bridge I would stock up with extra cricket magazines and books. If it was an important match like a Test, then they would take my barrow down to the ground and I would sell papers, magazines and books there. Times were pretty tough back then, so I would share my earnings. My Mum got some for shopping, and my sister and brothers all used to get some pocket money from me. Pity non of them remember.

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I seem to have hijacked this thread, hope no one minds if I continue. Bank holidays I used to push a trolley up and down the Midland Station platforms selling newspapers and magazines. The trolley had two racks tilted together joined at the top. I always knew when a holiday makers, day at the seaside, train was coming through, and when they were playing cricket at Trent Bridge I would stock up with extra cricket magazines and books. If it was an important match like a Test, then they would take my barrow down to the ground and I would sell papers, magazines and books there. Times were pretty tough back then, so I would share my earnings. My Mum got some for shopping, and my sister and brothers all used to get some pocket money from me. Pity non of them remember.

At 14, fairly impressive. An entrepreneur!! Obviously your bosses recognised it and you chose the RAF instead...

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At 14, fairly impressive. An entrepreneur!! Obviously your bosses recognised it and you chose the RAF instead...

Not really entrepreneurial. I was an employee who needed the money, so accepted whatever was on offer. Can't say I didn't enjoy it though.

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  • 5 years later...

Heavy earth moving equipment suggests building of the M1,Ratcliffe on Soar power station or similar,

 

Rog

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Would they have used road scrapers/Onions boxes to do that Notty ash, I suppose you can shift a fair bit of muck quickly with that sort of equipment though

 

Rog

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Dunholme - isn't that actually in Lincolnshire? oh and it's has a housing estate on it now..;)

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3 minutes ago, Brew said:

Dunholme - isn't that actually in Lincolnshire? oh and it's has a housing estate on it now..;)

Cottam Power Station now stands on this land and Cottam is in Notts.   

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