GPO/Telecom buildings & old phone numbers


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Reading Rob's post on Maid Marian Way made me wonder how many GPO/Telecom/PO buildings were scattered about the city?

I knew of Bath St,Broad St,Thurland St,..and learnt yesterday... the top of St.James's St.

Anymore information?

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The building in the foreground (between Bath St and Brook St) was the Nottingham automated Parcel Sorting Office - PSO, built late 1960s, later re-badged Parcel Concentration Office - PCO.  It had a b

Lincoln Street looking towards George Street, including a BT van (the exchange is behind the van).  Those old houses are still there.

We didn’t have a phone until about 1970 and thank goodness we did, my social life had been stunted up until then.  My Dad was still in that same house in Arnold until his death 5 years ago and still h

In the 70s and 80s, and just off the top of my head the offices were:

 

Walton House, St James Street (whole building - 11 floors)

Market Square House, St James Street (1 floor)

Newlands House, Mount Street (1 floor)

47 Upper Parliament Street (above the Post Office, 4 floors)

There was also the Phoneshop and another office in the building on the opposite corner of the top end of St James St.

 

As well, there were the exchanges, including Castle exchange on Broad Street, Crusader exchange on Thurland Street, Archer at the bottom of Huntingdon Street, and Bowman on Bath Street, as well as a lot more out of town, and the TECs (Telecoms Engineering Centres) on Arnold Road, Marmion Road, and Gregory Street.

 

Directory Enquiries were also for a while located in an office block on Barker Gate, until they moved into the Bowman building, and later into Castle Wharf.

 

The vast majority have now gone, with, as far as I know, only Bowman and Arnold Road remaining, as new technology took over, jobs were moved away from Nottingham, or people started working from home.

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Extending out of the city, there was a large exchange on Portland Road, Hucknall. I can't place it on Google maps but I think it was just down from Woodstock Street, on the same side.

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You may well be right. Not quite as I remember it though. My memory of the place was that it was quite close to the road and taller. Switch rooms on the ground floor and the exchange part above them.

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Jonab you are correct the building is still there and still used for the same purpose , having lived in Hucknall over 50 years I am put into shame by your memories of Hucknall , it is only when you write of some of your memories that I have to rake the depths of my brain to recall them.

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15 minutes ago, trogg said:

 having lived in Hucknall over 50 years I am put into shame by your memories of Hucknall

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It's nearly 50 years since I left!

 

Are you following the Hucknall High Street thread which I have resurrected? I would be interested in your comments on that.

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/7730-hucknall-high-street-60s70s/

 

Also Beardall St. School

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/16652-beardall-street-school-hucknall/

 

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Definitively located the telephone exchange. It was directly opposite Lingford St. - where a different building is now but it looks like it may be a BT place.

I well remember Lymns undertakers on the Lingford St. corner, it's certainly a lot posher than it was when I was there. In my time it was little more than a woodyard with some old bloke making coffins at the back. I used to buy timber from them for various projects I did when I was young.

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In those days it was not Lymns  but was an undertaker. It was known as Bexons and was run by Geoff Ward whose son Graham is now an independent undertaker in Hucknall. I also used the timber side of the business for my diy projects. The telephone exchange is still there, you often see Openreach vans outside. Years ago there used to be a butchers shop next door but that is long gone and looks derelict.

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Jonab    I had a look at the telephone exchange on Portland Road today and you may be correct on the building being different to how you remember it. The date on the building is 1958 so it depends on when you left Hucknall, I cannot tell from the road if it is a complete new building or just a new extension on the front, which could be the reason you thought it was further from the footpath.

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Our first ‘phone was when we moved to Park Rd. in Woodthorpe in the early sixties. I remember the number, 262824. It must have been similar to that of the Home Brewery because we regularly got calls asking if we were the Brewery. My stock answer was “I wish we were”! :biggrin: Where we now live, right up until the early 60’s, all calls went through the village post office so the postmistress was very well versed in everybody’s business!

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Never had a phone in the UK.  In laws did, but not us.  Never missed it.  We got one within a day or two of getting an apartment in Canada.  My first job meant being on call every other week or so.  I was soon ready to throw the thing out.  :(

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Ours in the 50's was 74640. Sad what sticks in ones head !

On a more technical note, and one for the 'experts', are the Nottingham exchanges and intermediate sub stations Strowger, Pentex or what ?

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We didn’t have a phone until about 1970 and thank goodness we did, my social life had been stunted up until then.  My Dad was still in that same house in Arnold until his death 5 years ago and still had the same telephone number.  

When I got married in 1975 we lived in a village in Oxfordshire and our phone number was Cropredy 296, yes for you music lovers, it was THAT Cropredy. 

 I found a number of family entries in old phone directories on Ancestry.com several years ago, dating back to the 1930s, really interesting too as it enabled me to work out where my Dad had lived and when. 

 

1931.           163 Rolleston Drive, Lenton.              Nottm 44823

1933-37.      49 Toston Drive, Wollaton Park.        Nottm 7425

1938.            5 Devonshire Promenade, Lenton.   Nottm 7425

 

Grandad had a timber business (which went bust in the Recession) so suppose he needed a phone at a time when few people felt the need for one. 

 

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Our phone number in the fifties was 66634, then later on a prefix of 2 was added.  I can still hear my mum's voice (in my head!) saying 'double six, six, three, four'

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Our number was 3420 with a dialling code 35 (Hucknall). I happened too often that people would use the Mansfield dialling code (dunno what that was) but our number with that dialling code then became the number for Rampton hospital.

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