Former pub hotspot is ‘almost unrecognisable’
STUDENT INFLUX CHANGED AREA’S FRIENDLY CHARACTER
DRINKERS say area of the city once known for its fantastic array of pubs has become almost unrecognisable.
Real ale campaigners fondly remember Alfreton Road as a stretch where “there was virtually a pub on every corner all the way down”.
Known for live music, it had a thriving nightlife.
But several pubs have closed over the last few years and the suburb is nowadays dominated by students, with a number of modern complexes built to meet the growing demand from Nottingham’s universities.
Residents fondly remember the pub scene and say how it is now much changed.
Retired David Jarecki,
63, said it used to be “a lot friendlier”.
“People seemed to be more sociable than they are now,” said Mr Jarecki, of Alfreton Road, Radford.
“As I call it the ‘original Nottingham,’ people would say ‘Eh up, duck, are you all right?’ Even if you did not know them.
“Also you could walk into a pub and you were welcome. It did not matter who you are or how you were dressed.
“It was completely different then, a completely different world.”
Of the pubs he used to go to, he said: “The one just around the corner, it used to be called the Albion.
“That was sort of like every weekend – Friday, Saturday evening.
“And also Alfreton Road used to be a start point on the way going into town – (you’d) end up in the city centre to finish the night off.”
It was known as the “run into town”.
“The pubs around here used to be so busy,” added Mr Jarecki, who has lived in the city for 40 years.
“Most of these pubs on this road here also used to have their own disco nights on a Friday or Saturday, playing the old Motown, 60s, 70s music.”
He also spoke about the Running Horse, well known as a live music venue.
Mr Jarecki added: “Pubs and landlords and landladies are thinking with students they make more money out of them.
“It’s nowhere near as friendly as it used to be.
“The whole atmosphere has changed around this area. In the last five years I don’t recognise the area, it has changed that much for students.”
The tall, modern Orbital student block of flats, at the junction of Ilkeston Road and Canning Circus, off Alfreton Road, symbolises how the landscape and demographic have markedly changed.
Developers, meanwhile, continue to plan to build more for students.
Plans have recently been submitted to redevelop a popular snooker hall into a new student flats complex and last year a multi-millionpound project was given the green light to revamp a fire-damaged John Player cigarette factory site.
Dr Abdeen Omer, 62, a mechanical engineer who lives in Forest Road West in the Arboretum area, also said the area had changed “dramatically”.
But he said: “Because of everything going up the students can benefit from this, and the street can benefit from them because they are going to buy things.
“Before there was no Tesco there.” Self-employed John Ene, 50, who used to live in Hyson Green but now resides in Derby, said: “I don’t know of this area very well but my friend who used to live here told me there used to be a lot of shops before. Some of the shops are closed down.
“Students bring about improvement, so it makes this city to be popular.
“It makes the city lively.”
It was completely different then, a completely different world
David Jarecki, 63, looks back