The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area in the centre of Nottingham, England. It was the centre of the world's lace industry during the British Empire and is now a protected heritage area. It was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. The Lace Market adjoins Hockley, and both areas now accommodate a variety of bars, restaurants and shops.
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Once the heart of the world's lace industry during the days of the British Empire, it is full of impressive examples of 19th-century industrial architecture and thus is a protected heritage area. It was never a market in the sense of having stalls, but there were salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. Most of the area is typical Victorian, with densely packed 4–7 storey red-brick building lined streets. Iron railings, old gas lamps and red phone boxes a plenty also help give the through walker a sense of going back in time to Victorian England. The Adams Building (now part of the City campus of Nottingham College) was designed by Thomas Chambers Hine and was built for Thomas Adams, a notable Quaker who did much to improve the typical Victorian working conditions in his factories.
There are some non Victorian parts to the area as well though, such as High Pavement which is a handsome Georgian street and home to the Galleries of Justice and St Mary's Church.
The area is sited on the area of the original Saxon settlement that became Nottingham, and also boasts the oldest Christian Foundation in the city, predating the Norman Conquest. St Mary's, on High Pavement is believed to be the third church to have stood there but was itself completed in 1474 and is an excellent example of early English Perpendicular architecture.
Another fine piece of architecture in the area is a warehouse designed by Watson Fothergill, a prolific local architect responsible for some 100 buildings in the area between 1870 and 1906. His work in the Gothic revival and Old English vernacular styles was very popular in Victorian times, and means that many shops, banks, houses and even churches are enlivened by turrets, gargoyles, mock Tudor beams and other distinctive features.
Every large British city has been affected by the decline of traditional industries. Once the principal engine of Nottingham's growth, the Lace Market powered a hosiery industry with 25,000 mostly female workers at its peak in the 1890s. Lace declined as technology changed and the working population fell below 5,000 in the 1970s with many of the factories becoming derelict and the area falling into decline. The Lace Market has undergone a renaissance and become a flagship for the city's post industrial regeneration. This change started in 1978 when Nottingham City Council led the Operation Clean Up programme offering public grants to building owners to refurbish their historic buildings. [1] Nearly all of the old warehouses that were once run down have now been cleaned and renovated and have found new uses such as luxury apartments, high-spec offices and academic buildings. Several PR and design agencies, as well as technology companies, have made the Lace Market their home.
Some streets in the Lace Market are now tourist attractions, such as the National Justice Museum on High Pavement. The Galleries are located in the old law courts and County Gaol (jail) – or County Goal as the stonemason accidentally inscribed it, a blunder still visible today above the entrance which ironically probably got the poor stonemason severely punished. There has been a court on the site since 1375, with the present Georgian building being used since 1780.
Some of the original 19th-century lace machines are still in use today, often interfaced with computers. Tours of the area and some of the old buildings are available.
The area is served by a Nottingham Express Transit's Lace Market tram stop on Fletcher Gate.
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located 110 miles (180 km) north-west of London, 33 miles (53 km) south-east of Sheffield and 45 miles (72 km) north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2018, the city received the second-highest number of overnight visitors in the Midlands and the highest number in the East Midlands.
Sneinton is a suburb of Nottingham and former civil parish in the Nottingham district, in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England. The area is bounded by Nottingham city centre to the west, Bakersfield to the north, Colwick to the east, and the River Trent to the south. Sneinton lies within the unitary authority of Nottingham City, having been part of the borough of Nottingham since 1877.
Nottingham city centre is the cultural, commercial, financial and historical heart of Nottingham, England. Nottingham's city centre represents the central area of the Greater Nottingham conurbation.
The Merchant City, a new name introduced through urban renewal by the Scottish Development Agency and the city council in the 1980s is one part of the metropolitan central area of Glasgow. It commences at George Square and goes eastwards reaching Glasgow Cross, in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It contains offices, flats, retail shops, restaurants, and bars. Part of the campus of the University of Strathclyde occupies the area. The Merchant City is home to several repurposed buildings including the City Halls & Old Fruitmarket, Merchant Square, and the Scottish Youth Theatre. It hosts many annual festivals.
All Saints' Church, Nottingham, is an Anglican church in Nottingham, England.
Watson Fothergill was a British architect who designed over 100 unique buildings in Nottingham in the East Midlands of England, his influences were mainly from the Gothic Revival and Old English vernacular architecture styles.
The architecture of Manchester demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles. The city is a product of the Industrial Revolution and is known as the first modern, industrial city. Manchester is noted for its warehouses, railway viaducts, cotton mills and canals – remnants of its past when the city produced and traded goods. Manchester has minimal Georgian or medieval architecture to speak of and consequently has a vast array of 19th and early 20th-century architecture styles; examples include Palazzo, Neo-Gothic, Venetian Gothic, Edwardian baroque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Neo-Classical.
High Pavement Chapel is a redundant church building in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It is now the Pitcher and Piano public house and is Grade II listed. It was built as, and for most of its existence operated as, a Unitarian place of worship.
Thomas Chambers Hine was an architect based in Nottingham.
The Adams Building, formerly the Adams and Page warehouse on Stoney Street, is the largest building in the Lace Market district of the city of Nottingham in England.
Nottingham Contemporary is a contemporary art centre in the Lace Market area of Nottingham. The gallery opened in 2009.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest parish church of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. The church is Grade I listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a building of outstanding architectural or historic interest. It is one of only five Grade I listed buildings in the City of Nottingham.
High Pavement is a street in Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It is one of the earliest streets in the city, and most of its buildings are listed.
Weekday Cross, in the Lace Market area of Nottingham, was the main market area in Nottingham. As the location of the town hall, Nottingham Guild Hall and main market, it was the centre of the town, before the market moved to the Old Market Square.
Thomas Adams was a British lace manufacturer and philanthropist based in Nottingham.
Polychrome brickwork is a style of architectural brickwork wherein bricks of different colours are used to create decorative patterns or highlight architectural features in the walls of a building. Historically it was used in the late Gothic period in Europe, and the Tudor period in England, and was revived in Britain in the 1850s as a feature of Gothic Revival architecture. Later in the 19th century and into the early 20th century it was adopted in various forms in Europe for all manner of buildings such as French eclectic villas, Dutch row houses, and German railway stations, and as far away as Melbourne, Australia, where the technique reached heights of popularity and elaboration in the 1880s.
The Old Angel Inn is a Grade II listed public house in the Lace Market, Nottingham.
Castle Gate is an historic street near the centre of the English city of Nottingham. The street runs uphill, from a junction with Low Pavement, Lister Gate and Albert Street in the city centre, to Castle Road, near to the entrance to Nottingham Castle. The street is noted for its Georgian houses, many of which are listed buildings. There is also a complex of rock-cut caves, under buildings at the lower end of the street, which is a scheduled monument.
St Mary’s Gate is a historic street in the Lace Market area of Nottingham City Centre between High Pavement and Warser Gate.
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