‘Port of Nottingham’ could once again be gateway to the city
BUT BELOVED OLD REDMAYNE & TODD BUILDING IS NOT LISTED
IT’S one of the most distinctive buildings on arrival to the city by train – and used to house the Redmayne & Todd sports shop.
Conservationists have provided a fascinating insight into the story behind the “City Buildings”, in Carrington Street, these days occupied by a number of well-known retailers at ground floor level, including Caffe Nero and Subway.
Ian Wells, vice-chair of Nottingham Civic Society, said that Gilbert S Doughty was the architect behind the grand property.
Headded it was in a key location between the city centre and railway station.
He said: “It’s an 1890s building and I remember somebody describing it as the port of Nottingham because it extends right back to the canal.
“And it’s got the loading sort of things, you can hoist stuff up from barges, right up into the upper levels of the building.
“It works almost as a gateway in both directions.
“Before you came in, the station was more or less at the edge of the city centre because that’s where they made them build stations in the 1830s, which is why Derby Station’s in the middle of nowhere and Nottingham Station.
“As you came past that, over the canal, you were entering the city. In a way, it’s a gateway building.
“It never actually had the clock originally – it’s got one now. But it never did.
“There’s a great deal going on, a lot of businesses.”
The site is perhaps best-known for when it housed the old Redmayne & Todd sports shop.
Hilary Silvester, executive chair of the Civic Society, said: “It’s a very well-known building, partly because of Redmayne & Todd, who were the sports manufacturers of tennis rackets and cricket bats and so forth.
“It’s still known as that. The top has been reinstated, at the apex of the corner of Carrington Street and Canal Street. “They did actually, the city council conservation officers, did call in Historic England to see if it could be listed.
“But unfortunately, although the outside is lovely and very well-preserved, the interior has been so messed around, pulled apart. “They said ‘unfortunately it was not in a condition that would entitle it to be listed.’”
The property was previously put up for sale by the city council, with an asking price of up to £4m.
Developers tabled a plan to make changes to the basement and create office space on the upper floors.
Since 2016, work has taken place to restore a number of buildings in Carrington Street, including Gordon House – once home to the Shipsides car showroom.
It’s got the loading sort of things, you can hoist stuff up from the barges
Ian Wells, Nottingham Civic Society
The property’s frontage has been repaired and cleaned.
It was also reported last summer that apartments, transforming the former Gresham Hotel, were nearing completion.
Mr Wells added: “That whole street, Carrington Street, has very importantly received a considerable amount of renewal recently.
“It’s an entry from the station to the city.
“That’s going to be perhaps more of an entrance to the city with the Broadmarsh gone.”
I’VE been a keen gardener for almost 40 years and I have to admit that in the early days I used a lot of peat. The standard mantra was that peat was great for your soil and pretty much essential for when growing any kind of plants in containers and pots.
In my early 20s I discovered that the peat used in horticulture was taken from fragile habitats and that these habitats had been pretty much stripped bare across much of their range.
As soon as I could I started looking for alternatives, which were hard to come by early on and pretty much dismissed by the gardening press and horticultural industry.
Thankfully as awareness was raised about the issues associated with habitat loss, alternatives did come to market and they gradually became better quality and apart from one time when I got caught out by the packaging, I’m delighted to say that I’ve not bought any peat based products for my garden in the last 20-odd years.
The Wildlife Trusts were at the forefront of campaigns to persuade gardeners to change their ways and I remember actively working to encourage DIY stores and garden centres to stock a wider range. In the early 2000s our ‘For peat’s sake’ leaflet gave details of major stockiest carrying peat free options.
As things began to change, protections were put in place to prevent the loss of peat from UK habitats but the industry continued to drive demand with peat increasingly being important from places such as the Republic of Ireland and further afield.
Sadly, whilst peat free alternatives became more widely available, the majority of compost used and bought by gardeners still contains peat- even today you have to actively seek out the peat free options and this must change.
Us gardeners must also put pressure on growers to use peat free compost when producing plants for us to buy – otherwise we are effectively turning a blind eye to the destruction of yet more peatland.
Twenty years ago the focus was on the unnecessary loss of delicate habitats and it was easy to dismiss this as a marginal issue. Today, we understand the huge significance of peat reserves in locking away huge quantities of CO2 as well as the value of peatlands to wildlife and as a means of storing and purifying our water.
Two decades on, The Wildlife Trusts and others are still fighting for a halt to the destruction of peatlands and the burning of uplands with the resulting release of greenhouse gases, whilst the fight to save rainforest habitat has become something of an emblem for the environmental movement.
The impact of deforestation on climate is widely understood and abhorred - the impact of destroying precious peatland, here in the UK and overseas, is less widely known; and in some quarters ignored.
With looming climate and ecological crises no longer reasonably in doubt the time to act is now – not just for peat’s sake but for all our futures.