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The posts re the Globe/Greyhound and the old Arkwright Street School and their various links brought back memories of London Road back in the 50s:

1. Coming out of town at night over the London Road Railway Bridge towards Trent Bridge, there was a large neon sign up high on the side of a building(not sure if the old Hicking/Hooters building or one that has been since demolished nearer to the bridge. Neon sign was coloured, in the shape of a Martini glass which was slowly filled up and when full, coloured bubbles went up in all directions. This repeated itself and I think it may have been for Schweppes? Anybody remember that??

2. Immediately after Hooters on the right hand side is what appears to be an abandoned building. Back in the 50s, this used to be Danks Ironmongers. My father often used to go there for wire fencing, tools etc. He used to get his cut timber and sawdust (for the kennel floors) from a timber mill across the other side of the canal. Between Hicking/Hooters and Danks is a waterway which back then was covered by some sort of building/connecting arch between the two and some 10 yards or so back from the footpath. Always found that view over the wall down into the black water scary as a kid, the same as the dislike I had for the view down into the waters between the lock gates on the canal. Anybody remember that??

3. Next to the Globe/Greyhound is a building that was once an Indian restaurant. That building used to be a Transport Cafe run by Chris and his wife Enid or Edna and they used to live over the top of the cafe. Used to go in there with my father when we were up that way. Father was good friends with Chris and they often went fishing together all over the place, including Scotland. Players from Notts County used to go in there in those days after training. Chris had a pinball machine in there which, on the QT, had a weekly prize of a carton of cigarettes or money for the highest score. Google pictures show the same old front to the cafe, entrance door which led straight onto the counter. To the left as you enter, the cafe proper with tables (vinyl covers) at the windows and the floor area in the shape of an 'L' with the end section and more tables off to the right. Also ledges around the walls to eat at with stools for comfort. The pinball machine was on the corner of the 'L'.

4. There was no petrol station next door back then and I seem to remember houses etc the other side of the Greyhound towards the City (not grass embankments as it is now), in particular an establishment called a 'Turf Accountant" - so written in fancy gold letters on his windows.

5. Remember the Globe picture house and dimly recall going there with my parents very early in the piece. After the pictures finished, crossing over London Road to catch a bus (Skills) back to Cliff Drive in RoT. No bus shelters back then and the current apartment building was a factory and the window ledges made handy seats (that I can remember).

Thanks to all you posters for causing me to reminisce instead of doing some work!!!!

Anybody else out there who can remember London Road back in those days???????

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"Stag & Pheasant, first pub I ever went in Christmas Eve 1944 aged 16, ten of us all family walked home along Manvers St.,/ Meadow Lane arm & arm across the road singing carols!

The posts re the Globe/Greyhound and the old Arkwright Street School and their various links brought back memories of London Road back in the 50s: 1. Coming out of town at night over the London Roa

The water behind Hooters is still there and doesn't show up on many maps, but I've found one where it does appear. Looking at this it could be either the Tinker's Leen (see on the left) or a branch of

Yes I recall all those things, but most in early1960's!

Think that neon sign was red and yellow? seem to recall another somewhere, maybe on side of that pub on Milton St right next to Victoria Station?

The factory with the deep set windows was Turneys leather works, think the later across the road garage was Blacknells? late 1990's I worked with an old guy who had been a mechanic there, told me someone there at the time having affair with a well known footballers wife!

Was told (and believed at time) that waterway was the River Leen, a lot of canal "arms" to factories in that area but seems too narrow for such? recall rats were about in that cutting?

Used to get a 41 trolley from Basford to Trent Bridge to see Notts County with my Dad, sometimes we got off at the terminus, with a nip in the gents there, recall that was all tiled and at time spotless with "brass"? tip over swivel liquid soap dispensers over each washbowl, think there was resident caretaker! lol. Other times we would get off the bus the stop before and cut through last street between Awkright St and London Rd, this was have been late 1950's.

Not sure if following memory dates from then or later? 1950's seems a bit early for it but wasn't there a "sex shop" near that bus stop? lol, maybe the forerunner of famed "Josie Boutique" on Noel St? have memories of hurrying past it averting my eyes to the scantily clad dummies in the window! can't think of another time I'd have been getting off buses at that stop? (and before any witty comments, no never went in it! or window shopped later!

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The water behind Hooters is still there and doesn't show up on many maps, but I've found one where it does appear. Looking at this it could be either the Tinker's Leen (see on the left) or a branch of the canal coming in from the right - or even a link between the two.

river-1.jpg

Ashley mentioned Blacknell's as the garage - and this seems to prove it http://www.pictureth...012498&prevUrl=

And Turney's Leather Factory has been apartments for many years. I guess you can probably watch Forest matches from some of the windows

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Hello Ashley - how's things? Trust the wife is OK now.

Think you are right about the colour of the neon sign.

Definitely remember the waterway between Danks and the old Hicking building being flowing; not stagnant as it appears now.

Again you are right about the factory being Turneys but the petrol station was never there back then, to the best of my memory.

As for the sex shop, well, don't think those places were about in the 50s. If they were, never saw them or heard of them.

You can see your 'Gentlemens Urinals' on PTP under London Road.

You and your father would have been going through from Arkwright Street, across London Road and down Meadow Lane to the Ground. When you came back that way, you would have been looking at the Transport Cafe.

Incidentally, did you know about the unidentified photographs on PTP? If you didn't, go to PTP, on the top tool bar, click on 'Can You Help', sign in and enjoy 116 pages of photos. Some appear to be outside Notts, quite a few of very early family portaits but, there are quite a few left that might prompt someone's memory.

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Thanks Cliff Ton for your response.

The garage that I said was not there back in the 50s was the one shown on later photos directly at the side of the Transport Cafe/Indian Restaurant and now on Google seems to be a car wash and valet centre.

The waterway between Danks and the Hicking building was the Tinkers Leen. I have found a photograph of the waterway as it is now, courtesy of the photographer John Sutton and whilst the picture is copyrighted, it is also licensd for further reuse.

Back in the 50s, as I said in my earlier post, there was a structure across the waterway between the two buildings and the water flowed underneath and I now recollect some form of railing across the mouth of the tunnel extending down into the water. This structure would have been one or two stories high, maybe even higher as you could definitely not see a view like in the photograph. I would estimate the structure was about where the top deck of the building extension on the immediate right of the picture stops.

1416139_4d057f3e_213x160.jpg

Tinker's Leen for SK5739

Looking west from London Road, behind the former Hicking Pentecost warehouse. This River Leen flood relief channel runs under London Road into the Nottingham Canal. I am indebted to Dave Hitchborne (pictures of Tinker's Leen elsewhere in this square) for showing that this is not a canal spur, as I had at first imagined - a foolish thought, as it is obviously moving water.

© Copyright John Sutton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

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Yes, you've almost drifted into the territory of the "Disappearing Petrol Stations" thread from a while ago. http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8263&hl=disappearing

The London Road area has quite a few contenders. The one you mentioned is indeed now a probably-east-european car wash and valet centre. Sam Wards at the London Road/Canal Street roundabout has been closed for a couple of years. And one at the top end of Radcliffe Road (slightly down from the TBI on the other side of the road) disappeared several years ago. There was also a filling station at B&K Thomas the Merc dealers, but that site is now Sandicliffe Ford and hasn't had petrol for years.

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Missed this one for a while... Great posts

The Neon sign on Town end of London Road was on the side of the pub (NAME)

But I remember it around 1963 as the front view of a steam train (animated?)

I go with Tinkers Leen too.

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Bit of a BUMP here, but that's what happens when you're catching up on what's gone before you arrive.

A couple of thoughts regarding the queries raised by TrevorS - was the neon sign advertising Tennants Gold Label Barley Wine? I can certainly remember that on the side of a pub, but can't be definite.

Regarding the cafe next to the Greyhound, was not this the site of the great Forest cup final ticket scandal in 1959? It did happen in the cafe frequented by the Notts players at the time. :wacko:

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Remember the gas works on London Road. We would walk down Queens Road along side the station, and then across London road to fill a barrow with coke. There were a couple of big gasometers there if I remember correctly.

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There used to be a row of B&B houses opposite the County ground just after Kirke-White St heading south used by long distance truck drivers on nights out.

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Re Post #5.

I was talking with a mate on Sunday and he was relating a tale about when the Post Office took a temporary lease on the building to the right of the picture.

He told how he was wandering around one night and had come across a bridge over the Tinkers Leen that led form the front factory to a rear annex.

Colin

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Bump

Can anyone claim any of these lovely ladies in an Easter Bonnet parade from 1963 . It says they are at the Norfolk Hotel , so assume London Rd . Must be someones Mum , gran or aunty here

http://www.macearchive.org/Archive/Title/midlands-news-16041963-easter-bonnet-parade-at-nottingham/MediaEntry/6004.html

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bowdown Aren't they just Beautiful David? I remember well the days of the 'Easter Bonnet' Parades.

During the 50's/ 60's my grandma always had a new hat from the millinery department of C&A - lovely memories of some of them, worn with her Dame Edna Everage style specs! :unsure:

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I know very little about London Road except that there was a pub on the corner of Station Street. It seems (when I worked there) that it was the second mess room for the shunters at the carriage sidings off London Road. Along with the Magpies on Meadow Lane that is.

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Sorry. I should have said Queen's Road. I told you I know very little about London Road, except that it was built or at least altered to take travelers across the very often flooded part of the meadows.

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You are close Katy but according to this , the first tarmacced road was Radcliffe Rd. I always thought it was Macadam that invented it but it was a Mr Hooley when he noticed that some chips spread over a spilt barrel of tar produced a smooth surface .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2009/07/03/edgar_hooley_tarmac_feature.shtml

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Ha Ha .

And I changed the articles wording from "slag" mixed in with the tar to "chips" as I thought slag was open to a witty reply !

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