First escalators in Nottingham?

[piggy and babs 544]

remember the one in mid sixties seem to think it was a wooden one like the old ones on the london underground had to be replacecedbythe new metal ones because of the fire risks and it did go up to the restraunt staff canteen was at the back of public restraunt same food just diferent price also some store rooms on that level could be reached via staff canteen but not public restaurant

. ill ask my mate hovis if he can remember if it was there in the fifties as his mum was manager of restrant in the fifties and he used to go in ther a lot when he was home on leave from his national service.

[Cliff Ton 10,479]

West End Arcade gets a few mentions earlier, and it has a history I didn't know of.

The Council House in Slab Square was built in the 1920s. The building before that was the Exchange which was built in the 1720s. At street level within the Exchange was an area known as the Shambles which had, among other things, a market and especially butchers stalls. It looks fantastically gruesome…

When the Exchange was demolished to make way for the Council House, all the butchers stalls from the Shambles were moved to the newly-constructed West End Meat Market (otherwise West End Arcade). So it was originally built to house dead cows!

[piggy and babs 544]

that arch at the top end very imilar to the one on hurts yard pehaps they were built at the same time

[poohbear 1,360]

West End Arcade gets a few mentions earlier, and it has a history I didn't know of.

The Council House in Slab Square was built in the 1920s. The building before that was the Exchange which was built in the 1720s. At street level within the Exchange was an area known as the Shambles which had, among other things, a market and especially butchers stalls. It looks fantastically gruesome…

And my Great Grandfathers younger brother was one of those Shambles butchers.

[.... 23]

An extra shot of Nottingham's Shambles on the right.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1880771266975&set=a.1155423973746.24670.1472118719&type=3

[mick2me 3,033]

I see Firbeck's ancestors had a place there?

[.... 23]

No G. King though thankfully...

[Tim in the North East 200]

Griffin and Spaldings and Jessops both installed escalators in the mid 1960s

Tim

[LizzieM 9,514]

I remember Tobys on Friar Lane had one but don't know how early, although I only went in there with my Mum so it would have been early 60's or before.

[Commo 1,292]

Tobys was on the ground floor and I don't recall them having a basement. I worked in the offices above from 1963 on the first and second floors and there was an old passenger lift which was available for our customers, staff were dissuaded from using it!

[LizzieM 9,514]

Commo, you are absolutely right, sorry ..... I just rang my aunt and she confirmed that there was no escalator in Toby's. My long term memory is not that great so does that mean I DO NOT have Alzheimer's (yet)?

[BulwellBrian 107]

I think that C&A was the first escalator in Nottingham. I remember going to see it.

[Ashley 288]

I thought Toby's had one too? a very narrow one really only suitable for one person per step (or these days one person per 2 steps!) and sort of tucked away, at right angles to what you expected and just one floor? If not Toby's then who knows? I did see one thus somewhere, would have been at latest 1959 as did not go into those sort of stores post then, (def not Dawsons,Kingston's Blacknell's Horace Rogers,Gaggs or Lowater Street lol)

[Bilboro-lad 294]

I'm pretty sure it was the big Co-op. When we were 8 or 9 we walked all the way from Bilborough to the co-op just to walk up them the wrong way. We lasted about 5 or 6 seconds before being booted off, so we tried the lifts with the same results. Finally we went to the very top of the black staircase and dropped aniseed balls down the centre of the bannister - then we were kicked out. Would be around 61/62.

[mick2me 3,033]

Yo likkle bogger!

[katyjay 5,091]

I was thinking the same thing, Mick! It's a wonder they didn't get a clip round the tab 'ole, perfectly legal in those days. Were the lifts in the Co-op the only ones that had a lift attendant, who called out the departments at each level as it stopped? I do remember that there, but not anywhere else. I can't remember going on an escalator in Nottingham till the Viccy centre opened in '72. I obviously didn't get out enough! My first escalator was in Bentall's store in Kingston Upon Thames when I was about 10, and staying with an aunt and uncle in Kingston.

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

Has anyone any Idea when the escalator in the West End Arcade was put in ?

[StephenFord 866]

I was thinking the same thing, Mick! It's a wonder they didn't get a clip round the tab 'ole, perfectly legal in those days. Were the lifts in the Co-op the only ones that had a lift attendant, who called out the departments at each level as it stopped? I do remember that there, but not anywhere else. I can't remember going on an escalator in Nottingham till the Viccy centre opened in '72. I obviously didn't get out enough! My first escalator was in Bentall's store in Kingston Upon Thames when I was about 10, and staying with an aunt and uncle in Kingston.

"Haberdashery; Elizabethan Restaurant, and garden gnomes...Going down...."

[carni 10,094]

Bilborolad #39

I feel that it was the CO-OP around the same years, We used to do the same thing, we would go up the escalator and down the lifts, we didn't get away with it to many times before we had to stop. As soon as we saw some adult walking towards us we were off out that door.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

It was because they were the first that they were so well-known. If it had been somewhere else we would have gone somewhere else.

[fn0 1]

I thought the first one was put into Griffin & Spaldings when they did a renovation and extension in the late 1950s. I remember seeing the escalator arrive outside the store on a huge lorry and later going down on the bus from Sherwood and riding on it. Previously I had only been on one on the Tube when visiting grandparents in London.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

Welcome to Nottstalgia, fn0. I look forward to reading your posts and sharing your memories.

[Guest]

Fno:were these wooden slatted ones? I only remember in the sixties- west end arcade near Bps deli,welcome to this site and have fun!!

[Trevor S 2,003]

Welcome to Nottstalgia, fn0. I look forward to sharing your memories..

[BilboroughShirley 1,120]

When I heard about the compensation paid to the young man who was hurt on the escalator in West End Arcade I was surprised that there was one there. A very nasty accident and so sad for the unfortunate young man.

I recognised the name West End Arcade and could vaguely remember what it looked like. Google maps reminded me where it was and so I searched and found this interesting thread. My very first experience of an escalator was in 1956. We caught a steam train from Victoria Station to Leeds to stay with my grandfather's sister. The steam engine seemed huge as I was little and it scared me when it let off steam. In Leeds we visited Lewis's store and it was just amazing. I loved the escalator as I had never seen one before. I am sure that my parents said that the shops in Nottingham did not have them at that time and I had certainly never seen one before. In 1986 I took my mum to Leeds again and we enjoyed happy memories of shopping in Lewis's. Sadly it closed, as did the one in Birmingham.

When my son was little and at the stage of learning to tie shoe laces a very kind assistant in a shoe shop warned me not to pressurise him into this and to check his laces before we went on an escalator as her son had got a loose shoe lace trapped in one and a quick thinking man saved the day by pushing the stop button.

I do not like the escalators in Leekes furniture shop as it is a slope not steps and in high heels I have to take care to keep my balance. I use the stairs!