Shakespeare Street


Recommended Posts

I'm sure that the shop with the grill on the window used to be a electronics dealer, my school friend Robert crooks used to live on Shakespeare villas and he was well into that sort of stuff. I remember him going there to get bits for projects like building radios

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, philmayfield said:

There used to be another electronics shop at the top of North Sherwood St. It was run by a man with the rather splendid name of Geoffrey de Havilland. He subsequently moved to Radford Boulevard.

This was A1 Factors. Not Geoff but Doug De Havilland. I knew Doug and his lovely wife Sheila very well for over 50 years. He actually started out selling solder, Fry’s I think. He dabbled in mail order kits and components eventually opening the shop at the top of North Sherwood Street. He relocated his shop to Radford Boulevard, one of the corner shops near Ilkeston Road. A charming, lovely,  kind and wonderful man. Sadly Doug passed away about 10 years ago and moving out here I’ve lost touch with Sheila. I miss Dougs advice and conversations. They had a beautiful home in the Park Estate and we have enjoyed some wonderful boozy meals there.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

That's right, it was Doug, although I believe he was related to the famous family.  He helped me out with industrial electronics on a few occasions. He knew exactly what he was talking about and after a brief description of the problem he could rapidly come up with a solution. When his shop was at the top of Sherwood St. he was very popular with the electronic hobbyists from the High School. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

Another of Shakespeare Street in the early 2000s. The blue shutter door and gap next to it used to be the entrance and exit for the Police Traffic Division.

iV2BKOg.jpg?1

You’re quite correct CT but note that the gap just to the left of the blue shutter led to a wooden ramp that was quite narrow and very steep where the cars were driven to the upper floors. The ramp was wooden with coarse metal mesh nailed to it to give grip. It was quite challenging driving up and down it.

Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

That's right, it was Doug, although I believe he was related to the famous family.

Quite correct Phil. He was indeed related to the De Havillands of aircraft fame. I don’t know exactly what the relationship was but he had some flying related memorabilia in his home bar.

I’ve still got one of his pcb’s he gave me for a John Linsley Hood class AB amplifier he gave me.

Link to post
Share on other sites
11 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

You’re quite correct CT but note that the gap just to the left of the blue shutter led to a wooden ramp that was quite narrow and very steep where the cars were driven to the upper floors. The ramp was wooden with coarse metal mesh nailed to it to give grip. It was quite challenging driving up and down it.

 

And I remember it was also very noisy. Pedestrians who were walking past the ramp had plenty of warning that something was coming down, even if they couldn't see it.

Link to post
Share on other sites
44 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

You’re quite correct CT but note that the gap just to the left of the blue shutter led to a wooden ramp that was quite narrow and very steep where the cars were driven to the upper floors. The ramp was wooden with coarse metal mesh nailed to it to give grip. It was quite challenging driving up and down it.

The blue shutters were added when the Service Station/ 5 minute car wash closed down and the frontage bricked up. I'd guess that was 80s/90s. As I recall early 70s, the cars went up the ramp Shakespeare St, but I thought exited down a rear ramp into Peachy St yard? I remember one driver commenting the ramp always needed a quick run up and quite tight. The Car wash had the contract for cleaning the police vehicles, Triumph 2.5 p.i.s mostly. I worked at the service station for a couple of years whilst at school. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

As far as I recall there was only the front ramp. There was a ‘down’ ramp at the back but this just went down from ground floor level to a small basement area. The motor bike parking was down there, not police bikes but own bikes. No other ramp up or down I don’t recall but it’s been a while. Somewhere at the back of my mind I think there was a sort of traffic light system to warn when a vehicle was coming down the ramp so you didn’t meet half way.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Cheers for that info, letsavagoo. I certainly remember a back ramp, which you could see from the Peachey St rear entrance of the garage/car-wash, that'd be '71/72. I must have got the wrong impression, I could have sworn I saw traffic cars on Peachey St. Long time though...:)

Link to post
Share on other sites
16 hours ago, letsavagoo said:

 No other ramp up or down I don’t recall but it’s been a while. Somewhere at the back of my mind I think there was a sort of traffic light system to warn when a vehicle was coming down the ramp so you didn’t meet half way.

 

You can just about make out the traffic light system on the right-hand wall.

VgWpbev.jpg?1

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/16/2020 at 6:28 PM, TBI said:

Cheers for that info, letsavagoo. I certainly remember a back ramp, which you could see from the Peachey St rear entrance of the garage/car-wash, that'd be '71/72. I must have got the wrong impression, I could have sworn I saw traffic cars on Peachey St. Long time though...:)

There was large ground floor parking with access via Peachy Street and the fuel pump was in the back yard. I never knew it before it was bricked up at the front. In fact, until I read the relevant post I thought it had always been closed off at the front.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/16/2020 at 4:07 PM, letsavagoo said:

This was A1 Factors. Not Geoff but Doug De Havilland. I knew Doug and his lovely wife Sheila very well for over 50 years. He actually started out selling solder, Fry’s I think. He dabbled in mail order kits and components eventually opening the shop at the top of North Sherwood Street. He relocated his shop to Radford Boulevard, one of the corner shops near Ilkeston Road. A charming, lovely,  kind and wonderful man. Sadly Doug passed away about 10 years ago and moving out here I’ve lost touch with Sheila. I miss Dougs advice and conversations. They had a beautiful home in the Park Estate and we have enjoyed some wonderful boozy meals there.

This is really interesting and I'm curious to know where the shop on Radford Boulevard was! Was it the one on the corner of Landseer Street? On Google Street View it is shown as being called Boulevard Gift Ship with (electrical contractor) above the door. Was this Doug's shop?!

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, letsavagoo said:

There was large ground floor parking with access via Peachy Street and the fuel pump was in the back yard. I never knew it before it was bricked up at the front. In fact, until I read the relevant post I thought it had always been closed off at the front.

Yes, letsavagoo. All that frontage, right-hand of the ramp, was originally Moons garage/car showroom and extended the whole length of the building. When Moons closed, the first section (right-hand between the pillars where you can see the door in the middle) was bricked in. The rest was still open and it became the Shakespeare St Service petrol station and car wash. When they closed, sometime '80s onwards I believe, the other two sections were bricked in and the blue shutters installed.  

 

Just to the right of the ramp, the other side of the wall was the petrol station office/kiosk where the petrol pump attendant was. As CT said, everytime a traffic car used the ramp it used to make a right racket, but if you were in that office, it used to shake the shelves too.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/17/2020 at 10:26 AM, Cliff Ton said:

 

VgWpbev.jpg?1

 

  I am sure that back in the late 60s........that was a car wash........

Link to post
Share on other sites

Another Nottingham street that holds so many memories for me,,,and i'm sure many more of you,,,

Visited the Police station a few times,,in the course of work........Purchased a few items from the Camping shop in years gone by,,was it called ''Camp and Sports'' ?..........One of my sons who had over 100 pro boxing fights......and started at the YMCA....Also my company did some Security work at the Uni premises on the street for Radford boys boxing club........First time i really noticed immigrants in Nottingham,,when i worked as a Van Boy for British rail for a few months on leaving school in 1960,,they lived on Shakespeare Villa's,,......knew a couple of the Topless Barmaids quite well,,when the Pub was active ,,,forgot its name,,?..........last but not least got Wed down there,,,twice!   once in the Gold room and once in the Red.......been busy down that street'''

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...