Canal Street / London Road roundabout


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If you wander into office car parks in the Lace Market there are some decent views towards London Road and the south.

This is the London Road / Canal Street roundabout. If you can't work it out, start from the former Sam Ward's petrol station in the lower left.

london.jpg

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Nice one Cliffton, reminds me of that old music hall song "----- I could see to 'ackney marshes if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between". Do you have one in your files showing how it used to be, pre-BBC etc. when the Boots factories lined that side of the road & would the 'High level' station have been visible to the left side?

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bottom right hand corner houses corner of cliff rd opposit that is the night shelter corner canal st and london rd.

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Do you have one in your files showing how it used to be, pre-BBC etc. when the Boots factories lined that side of the road & would the 'High level' station have been visible to the left side?

Boots factories, roughly where the BBC building is now.

bootsB-1.jpg

The railway bridge over London Road with Boots buildings in the background.

bootsA.jpg

And looking towards Canal Street

bootsC-1.jpg

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Friends of mine live at the top of that tall building on the left of the photo. From their balcony you can see the football grounds, Trent Bridge cricket ground, Greens Windmill, Colwick Woods and in the other direction the Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station.

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Thanks Cliffton, one wonders where all that 'manufacturing floor space' went to!, but I flinched on seeing the engine crossing the London Rd. bridge a class 9F "Franco Crosti" boilered 'health hazard', for the fireman anyway! The working chimney is behind that small plume of steam in front of the firebox,3-4 metres in front of the firemans window, if I remember rightly the exhaust steam/smoke was used to preheat the water losing a lot of its 'puff' so it drifted into the firemans side of the engine.This one may already have been converted back to a 'normal' class 9.

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Hornby are releasing an OO version next year. I'll start saving.

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  • 4 months later...

Just next to the roundabout, another piece of old Nottingham has gone. The former Victorian school on Canal Street has been demolished; in later years it was the Sheriff's Lodge, where you could go for a meal surrounded by people dressed as Robin Hood.

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The site now looks like this.

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At least the next building along has survived (with the blue tower). Now a shelter for homeless people, it started life as a Watson Fothergill-designed police station.

DSC_3647.jpg

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Those two buildings bring back memories of Trent Bridge schooldays.

When I was about eight, we did a project on the police force and the best three got a day out with the police. I was a lucky one. We started with a tour of that police station on Canal St, before moving on to see the police horses at Wollaton Park, in a black maria. Finishing back to see the police launch by the Tuborg plant opposite Forest. A fantastic day.

The next memory not good. The building to the right was the dentist. I was sent there after a school check-up and had three back teeth out. In those days you got the gas, so I only suffered the aftermath, but that was pretty awful. Didn't put me off tuffees though.

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I worked in an office opposite the old police station on Canal St. This would be 1969/70 ish. We always thought the building was the morgue at that time. Does anyone know if I'm right? I don't think it was a police station then, never saw any police activity.

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When I was about eight, we did a project on the police force and the best three got a day out with the police. I was a lucky one. We started with a tour of that police station on Canal St, before moving on to see the police horses at Wollaton Park, in a black maria.

I did one of those in the early 60s from Greencroft Juniors at Clifton.

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Katyjay Yes it most certainly was, it was the mortuary were victims of crime or accidental death (car crash) etc were taken.

I first went there as a very naïve 15 year old (early1962) whilst working for EMGAS. I walked in behind my fitter tool bag over my shoulder and was greeted by the policeman behind the counter with the words "Hey up lad, we haven't seen you here before, would you like to shake hands with one of our guests?" "No thank you sir." I replied shakily "Oh go on" he said "She's very pretty, I tell you what I'll bring her hand out for you to shake."

The bang you heard was the tool bag hitting the floor, I was off up Canal St.

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I did one of those in the early 60s from Greencroft Infants at Clifton.

It was a great day out for a youngster who was always in awe of the police. Every time I go up to Wollaton Park, I think back to the huge horses I saw then. We also saw the frogmen at the river police point, and I clearly remember one of them saying there was section of the river where it was possible for a man to walk halfway across. He wouldn't say where though.

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I clearly remember one of them saying there was section of the river where it was possible for a man to walk halfway across. He wouldn't say where though.

If I remember correctly that would be just above Clifton bridge particularly in summer, maybe a Clifton local will confirm.

Which is why in the 1700s when canal building was at it's height,the river was dredged. And just above Clifton bridge many flagstones were removed from the river bed,almost definitely the remains of a Roman ford.

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I have seen Drunken Forest Fans walk across the Trent one very hot summers day.

This took place near Trent Bridge, where the depth markings are engraved on the side of the bridge.

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When I was about eight, we did a project on the police force and the best three got a day out with the police. I was a lucky one. We started with a tour of that police station on Canal St, before moving on to see the police horses at Wollaton Park, in a black maria.

Two other things I've remembered about my similar visit.

At Canal Street police station, we were shown the state-of-the-art technology of the time..... a teleprinter. They made a big thing of it, and we (8 year-olds) were made to believe this was almost rocket science and would totally defeat all known criminals.

The police officer who was in charge of the trip was PC Percy Davenport, who was the childrens' liason officer for Notts Police in those days. He was a bit of a minor celebrity of the time, always coming into schools to give talks about police work, and I think every school-kid in Nottingham in the early 60s would have known him.

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I don't remember who took us round on the day, or PC Davenport. At the time, the most well-known to me was PC Wilson.

We did get school visits from police too. They came down one day with a couple of motorcycles, white Triumphs. I sat on one and got to speak to 'control' on the radio telephone. Brilliant.

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  • 4 years later...

I remember the school dentist too sitting at the brown sink afterwards with an enamel mug washing out the blood.  Downstairs from there was a gym to where we were walked  from Welbeck school on Queens Drive once a week. Never could climb up the ropes.

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