Photographs 
| Lenton Listener Articles | Memories |
Map
| Pre-Demolition | ||
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Billy Hill's newsagents in 1964. The shop was situated at the junction of Willoughby Street and Derby Road. |
An undated photograph of Willoughby Street probably taken in the late 1950s. The photographer was standing at the Derby Road end with his/her back to Derby Road. |
The Boys Brigade Club in May 1930. The building situated at the corner of Church Street and Willoughby Street later became the base for the Monty Hind Boys Club. |
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This is the stretch of Willoughby Street between Park Road and Castle Boulevard. The property on the left is still with us but the factory on the right burnt down in the 1980s and the property was subsequently demolished to make way for the M.F.I. furniture warehouse. |
Ball's the chemist stood at the adjacent corner of Park Road and Willoughby Street. This business was transferred to a shop further up Park Road before the property came down in the general clearance of the area in the 1960s. |
This is a photograph of the Ball's new shop on Park Road with Fred and Vera Ball standing in the door way. Photograph taken in 1982. |
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Willoughby Street at its junction with Castle Boulevard. In the foreground is the old tramshelter and in the background some of the properties which stood on Sherwin Road. |
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| During Demolition | ||
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This portion of Willoughby Street stood near the junction with Derby Road. Halfway along the terrace is a passageway leading to other properties situated at the back. The sign above the passageway reads 'Bell's Yard'. |
This is the same set of properties but viewed from the other direction. Demolition has now got underway and the date given for this and the next photograph is May 1962. |
Probably taken later that same day the next portion of the terrace comes tumbling down. |
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This sequence of four photographs shows a set of properties fronting on to Derby Road in the process of being demolished. |
A present day viewer can get some idea of where these properties stood from the presence of the Derby Road Methodist Church properties just visible on the left of the photograph. |
This photograph provides evidence as to how the demolition men went about their business. A chain attached to the mini-bulldozer is wrapped around the building and then the driver simply puts the vehicle into reverse. |
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Seconds later the final portion of the buildings hits the ground. The date given for this sequence of photographs is May 1963. |
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| During and After Redevelopment | ||
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The Willoughby Street flats undergoing construction with Billy Hill's shop just visible on the right. |
Another view of the flats with the Daks Simpson factory situated behind them on Park Street. |
In many respects this 1978 view of Willoughby Street from its junction with Park Road looks much the same today. However the commercial premises on the lefthand-side have both since changed hands. The story of Allen Embroideries who occupied the building in the foreground is told in Lenton Times No.19 |
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The three photographs above were supplied by Gordon Jackson and show the recently completed and still unoccupied Willoughby Street flats in 1965. |
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These three photographs are reproduced courtesy of John Perivolaris and were taken on 14 March 2007. They are looking northwards from the Church Street end of the flats complex. More of John Perivolaris's photographs can be found at www.flickr.com |
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The Willoughby Street flats in 2008 viewed from Church Street. |
In the opening sequence of the 2007 film Control we are led to believe we are in Macclesfield but those familiar with Lenton would have recognised the presence of the Willoughby Street flats in this bit of the film. They also crop in this poster for the film made for the French market where the actor Sam Riley who plays Ian Curtis stands on Willoughby Avenue with the flats clearly visible in the background. |
A 2008 view of the Willoughby Street flats from the end of Park Street as the road goes into the parking area at the back of the Church Square shopping complex. |
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Part of the pedestrian pathway that takes you on to the extant section of Willoughby Street. The back of the Church Square shopping complex can be seen in the middle distance. |
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Articles from 'The Lenton Listener' Magazine
J.R. Ball - Chemist - Issue 18 - May to June 1982
Aileen
Graystock
My family moved to 73 Willoughby Street in 1955 when I was four
years old and we lived there until 1962. During that time I
attended Lenton Infants and Junior Schools and also went to
Cottesmore School for a short while. I lived there with my parents
Emily and Cyril Holmes, and my sister, Avril and brother, Alan. Our
parents initially ran a motor spares business from No.73 but later
converted it into an antique shop.
Aileen has listed some of the fellow residents of Willoughby Street that she can remember and using Kelly’s 1956 Nottingham directory and electoral registers from 1956 and 1961 we have added some additional information.
On the eastern side of Willoughby Street starting from the Derby
Road end I can recall the following:
Majorie Hart [Cyril Hart – No.1],
Betty Dilly [?], a beer-off [Mitchells &
Butlers Ltd. brewers (retail depart.) – No.15] -
crossing Head Street - Shelbourn’s corner shop [ Lillian M. Shelbourn – No.47], Millie
Bott’s [Thomas Farrell & Millie
Farell (née Bott) – No.49], a pub [Smith’s Arm’s P.H. – No.53],
Minnitt’s chip shop [Wm. A. Minnitt
fried fish dealer - No.55], Considine’s [John Considine – No.57], Merchant
[Reginald Norman Merchant –
No.59], David Lamb [John H. & Joan
Lamb – No.61a], Beard [Ronald S.
& Blanche B. Beard – No.61], Panter (café)
[possibly No.69 Mrs Joan M. Martin
café], Mooney [?], Miller (wool shop) [?], our shop
[Cyril & Emily Holmes – No
73], Addison’s butchers [William
& Marie Addison – 73a], Gardie’s grocers
[Bernard & Marion Gardie –
No.77], Dyer (sweets) [Eliza Ann Dyer -
No.79], Wilson’s (chemists) [T.
Wilson chemist – No.81] – crossing Digby Street
– Potts Infant’s Friend (corner of the street)
[Potts Infant’s Friend manufacturing
chemists Standard House Digby St.], Broughton’s paper
shop [Wm. Hy. Broughton newsagents – No.83b (1953
directory)], Jack Feast [John L. & Annie
Feast – No.95].
On the western side of Willoughby Street starting from the Derby
Road end:
Billy Hill’s (paper shop) [Billy Hill
– No.227 Derby Road] – crossing Manfull Street
– Moult (cakes) [?], Mason [?], Nutty [Henry H. & Maud A.
Nutty – No.80 1956], Frank Parkes (cobbler) [Frances & Lily Parkes – No.96], dairy [?],
wet fish shop [Lenton Fisheries (fishmongers)
– No.60a], Mervill’s meat shop [Geo. Herbert Mervill (pork butchers) –
No.64], Monty Hind Boys’ Club [No.66] –crossing Church Street –
hardware shop on corner [Stanley Ward,
hardware dealer – No.68], Selby’s [J. & R. Selby, motor engineers – No.90],
Taylor [Lawrence S. & Elizabeth Taylor
– No.112].
Steve Wilson
For about ten years I lived on Newgate Street and my family remained there until the demolition of the area began and we moved to Bestwood Park. Newgate Street was the first street crossing Willoughby Street as you came along it from Derby Road. I remember the chip shop next to the Nags Head, where a hearty family meal of faggots and chips and gravy was to be had for about one shilling and sixpence. At the top of Newgate Street was a plumbers yard, and I recall one year when, during a thunderstorm, a fireball came down the street and took the paint off cars and house windows alike. The beer-off on the corner was run by Jack Holt, who was very generous to us when we were down and out, which was often. Round the corner on Willoughby Street before the pub [the Nag's Head] was Mason's grocery store. Our entire block was, I believe, owned by Mitchells and Butlers, the brewery. I have vivid memories of Lenton, as I was a paper lad for several years, traipsing from half way up Derby Road, all along Willoughby Street, down to Castle Boulevard and back through Abbey Street to Lenton Boulevard. I saved up enough to buy my first bicycle from the bike shop at the bottom of Willoughby Street. Our first car was a 1939 Morris Series E, bought from a man who owned an electrical shop on Willoughby St, and he must have had money because he ran a Ford V8 Pilot! back on Newgate Street we used to have our own bonfire on the 5th of November, which usually resulted in a few cracked windows and a big hole in the road. In the run up to Bonfire Night our pockets would be full of the thruppeny bangers which we bought from 'Lockies'.
Peter Stables - Alvaston, Derbyshire
I was born at No. 1 Albion Place in 1940. My parents were Arthur and Louisa Stables and we continued to live there until 1953. Albion Place was the name given to a terrace of five houses situated in a yard off Willoughby Street and just behind the Albion Inn on Sherwin Road. The properties on Albion Place were effectively one room deep. On the ground floor was our living room, above it my parents’ bedroom and on the top floor the bedroom I shared with my brother, John. The staircase leading up these was very steep and we always had to be careful. We had a scullery off the living room and a very small yard at the back with a gate which led on to Albion Terrace.
My brother and I could regularly be found playing on the ‘Prom’, the strip of land between Sherwin Road and Castle Boulevard. When not on the Prom we might be found playing on Abbey Bridge banks or perhaps further afield off down Trent Lane. Once I was old enough, I was employed by Harry Wells as a paperboy. He had a newspaper business on Willoughby Street and gave me a round that took in most of Dunkirk so I had the use of the shop bike. This meant an early rise to deliver the morning papers and I was back there after school to do the evening papers not to mention the same round on a Sunday. For this I would be rewarded with the sum of 8s 6d. – I thought I was rich! Mr Turton who lived in house on Willoughby Street which backed on to Albion Place ran a greengrocery business from his front room. He also had a pony and cart which he used to go around the streets selling his wares. His pony was named Nelly and on Sundays his boys, Alan, Maurice and John would put Nelly in the trap and take us for rides around the countryside. Riding out in this cart remains one of my most vivid memories from this era.
My uncle and aunt, Charles and Rose, used to have the chip shop on Grove Road across from the Grove Hotel. Also on Grove Road at No.23 was Alf Hornby, the coal merchant. His son, also called Alf, married my aunt Rose Scarlett. I also had an uncle Lawrence (Lal), who lived on Hungerton Street and an uncle Frank, who lived on Harley Street. In 1953 my mother gave birth to my sister Pamela and this prompted our move away from Lenton. No. 1 Albion Place was now thought too small for our family and the Council offered my parents a new house on the Clifton Estate. We moved in over the Easter weekend and gradually lost touch with our old neighbours. I do know that the Martin family, who lived at No. 3 later moved to a house on Castle Boulevard but I have no idea what happened to the others.
Sandra Clegg (nee Arnold)
My father was Nathaniel Arnold who was killed in the Second World War. His name has been included on your list of Lenton people who died in that war. It is good to know that he will not be forgotten.
Nathaniel had married Nora Tunicliffe and they subsequently had my sister, Jill, and myself. His brother Lou had married my mother’s sister, Dora - while another brother, Bert Arnold, married Alice, another of my mother’s sisters. Three brothers marrying three sisters was very unusual and I understand that an article on them appeared in the local paper – possibly the Nottingham Evening Post.
Dora and Lou Arnold, my aunt and uncle, lived with their son, Mick, on Willoughby Street. My Grandma Tunicliffe also lived there. Alice and Bert Arnold, along with their children, Susan and David, lived on Lombard Street. They later moved to Park Street where my Grandma Arnold lived. After my father’s death my mother married Jack Shaw and they had two sons, John and Martin. Our new father was a wonderful man and we couldn't have asked for better. We lived on Church Street. The property was situated in a yard with houses on three sides with a row of toilets making up the fourth side. Each toilet was shared by two houses. I remember on washdays my mother used the facilities at Lenton washhouse – washing was still hard work in those days.
Among the other people I recall are Les Betts, his wife and daughter, Jean, who had a fresh fish shop on one side of Willoughby street & a greengrocers on the other. Their properties were just a couple of shops away from Monty Hind boys club and as a child I would sit on my window sill and watch them play. There was also Mr & Mrs Tom Adams, who had a grocers shop on the corner of Lombard & Church Street. They would sometimes give us the odd sweet while they were on ration. Otherwise, we only got sweets once a month. The Adams eventually sold the shop and moved to 29 Church Street about 1949/50.
John Dennis
My family lived at 31 Willoughby Street, which was next door to The Nag's Head public house. Following Forest's victory in the 1959 Cup final we all stood on Derby Road to watch the team pass by with the cup on display.
I can also remember 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' being filmed at the top end of Willoughby Street - I got a signed photograph off one of the actors.
Once they started to demolish the Willoughby Street properties I seem to recall that the whole area became plagued with mice and rats.
I was only seven when we finally left in 1961 to move to Clifton. Does anyone reading this remember my family - my parents were Bill and Dorothy Dennis?
See also 'Growing Up In New Lenton'
Len Taylor recalls the Willoughby Street area of his childhood.
Let us know your past and present memories of Willoughby Street
Do you have any historical information or other photographs of this area? If so, email us with the details or write to us.