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With all the press coverage on the revamp and finally work starting on Broadmarsh , a few of us were chatting about what it will do for our city and then... we starting comparing the City, it's shops and nightlife  to the past...

 

So might as well start with Broadmarsh which gets a right slating but for me it wasn't always bad....In fact I think back in the early days it was actually better than Victoria! Forget Intu lol Broadmarsh  always seemed brighter for us south city lot! Shop wise it had some corkers... fav was the Co-op it seemed so vast as it was very open plan , water fountains next to escalators 'exotic' lol toy department with a grotto at Christmas, corner restaurant to watch the world go by below and the sweet counter on the front opposite dixons... 

All seemed downhill once it went...

 

CandA cheap clothes for a sat night out lol BHS when it sold amazing food! Sainsbury's where Wilko's is . A food store would have kept this centre going why it never had another is crazy... some other names of stores: Bem Bows, Swing In ( across the corner)   Fashion floor. Remember Situals   gift shop and the springing animals in the window... magic as was the Gordon Scott monkey! Not an empty shop in sight during the 80s!

 

The  pubs around it also helped...bench and bar, sawyers and king john. Many a time we had " just 1 ( or 10) after work " or cheeky lunchtime drink had in these !) Not forgetting the Astoria Club one Xmas eve they opened at lunchtime ...We managed to have a luncbreak and headed there! Don't think that happens as much now ( that was the 80's when lunch was for wimps...we were wimps and happy).

 

Looking at the wider city there were so many more great shops bars and clubs back in the 80's .  Shops: Pearsons ( unique to our City) A Huge Woolies with a massive cafe, BIG CO-OP ( bit of a trek but the best Grotto anywhere ever if you took the hike!)  Limey's ( if you were loaded ) 1860 , Ciro  Citterio( how do you say it ?)  A must was to shop in the day if you were out at night lol no wonder we never had money We were always shopping or going out ( somehow even managed it with little cash! ) paid in cash weekly you were only skint for 3 days before the next payday... unlike monthly !

 

Pubs were so much better : Robin Hood tavern ( wall dancing) Browns or Jallands to impress although the Royal Hotel and it's Penthouse bar was literally miles above the rest( if you got past the doormen!).  QE ,Fountain,Oscars, Pumps. Was there more then than now???

 

But it was the Clubs that made a night into a Great Night, Michale Issacs( that white limo seemed amazing driving round promoting it!), Madisons 'classy' and great with Sunset bad vine below it. Black Orchid ( the free  bus trip from the square to it was always a laff , not so good if you had to catch it back ). Arrabella's , Zhivagos ( OK Vic Centre had a club in it). Garage , Venus, Hippo...Bomb there was something everyone almost every night. MGM ( with punters paid to dance in the early days... but RITZY's was the one we often ended up in...Tue student night Wed grab a granny, Thursday VFM ( 50p a drink but not  Mad dog 20/20 thank god), Fri and Sat well it was the end if the week so be rude not to go! Closing at 2am you could just about get up the next day and function....

 

I think I once. read that Nottingham was a unique place as it's nighttime economy took as much as the daytime, back then Derby and Leicester had nothing on Notts .... caught us up now to a degree though.

 

Notts need to get it's mojo back  and become the good time place it was , that means great shops a wide variety of bars and clubs to get us dancing in.  Not more golf , cinemas and bowling alleys and please we've had enough gourmet burger restaurants to make us vegan.  

 

Anyone else have thoughts on the old Notts City v the current and what's needed....

 

 

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A bit after my time but Nottingham was a good place to be. My youth time was in the 60's.

welcome I forgot to add.

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9 hours ago, 8pm debenhams corner said:

With all the press coverage on the revamp and finally work starting on Broadmarsh , a few of us were chatting about what it will do for our city and then... we starting comparing the City, it's shops and nightlife  to the past..

 

Different people have a different idea of what is “the past”.   You’ve started in the 70s and 80s, but other people here will go back to the 60s and even 50s. Many Nottstalgians had stopped being teenagers a long time before the era you are referring to; your piece is referring to a time when middle-age was looming large. 

 

I certainly agree that in the early years, Broad Marsh Centre was better than Victoria, which younger people may find difficult to believe. I Iived on Clifton so went through Broad Marsh every time I came into Nottm and it was definitely brighter and better than the gloomy, dull Vic.

 

9 hours ago, 8pm debenhams corner said:

Anyone else have thoughts on the old Notts City v the current and what's needed...

 

For me, the "old" Notts is the late 60s and early 70s, and hindsight tends to be slightly rose-tinted. What you thought was good when you were younger isn't what you think is good as you get older. Walk around the city centre in the 80s and you couldn't move for kids with very big hair, break-dancing in the market square, and tacky pubs. 

 

And who remembers the awful invention of "fun pubs" - that 80s creation which definitely proves that it wasn't all perfect.

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I was trying to remember Vic Centre and Broadmarsh from the days of me youth and found it a difficult task.  The bus to Calverton went from Huntingdon Street Bus Station - the last bus was 11pm in the week and 11-30pm on Friday and Saturday so that limited late night socialising somewhat. I realise that I've never actually been to a 'club'. The queue for the last bus was always a laugh, though. Saving a place for your mates - sharing chips - scrounging a fag - rushing to get a seat upstairs.

Shopping was Central Market - hot peas (or shrimps if you were posh) - and C&A for fashion.

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I used to see quite a bit of the Broad Marsh Centre in the 1990s when working nearby, plus when walking to the station and I thought it was fine then with all the shops as mentioned earlier. Certainly went there more often than the Victoria Centre compared to when I lived in Sherwood prior to moving to Bulwell and could get off the bus there when going into town - after that it was always more out of the way as far as I was concerned.

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