Lace, Slums & The Occasional Riot: The Making of Victorian Nottingham 
A report of 1844 into housing conditions in Nottingham recorded that…

‘There are 8,000 back-to-back dwellings (in Nottingham).  The drainage is defective and a number of thickly populated streets are unpaved and are without sewers’.

Chris tells the story of how Nottingham changed from what Danel Defoe described as ‘one of the most pleasant towns in England’ into a major industrial city. The talk follows the fortunes of the hosiery trade and the development of the giant lace industry with its fine warehouses on Stoney Street and Broadway.  Names like Birkin and Adams became leading names in the lace trade.

But alongside wealth came poverty, riots and crime.  Chris’ talk reveals the town’s underworld of Narrow Marsh and Broad Marsh.  You will also hear how rioters flooded into the Market Place and about grim hangings outside the Shire Hall.

As the town’s population grew, whole areas of overcrowded courtyards and alleyways sprang-up creating problems of poor health, fevers and even outbreaks of cholera.  Yet nothing stopped Nottingham’s expansion and new railways brought in more people and business.

The go-ahead town produced countless, larger-than-life, characters like Bendigo, the boxer and ‘movers and shakers’ including  prominent businessman Jesse Boot and renowned architect Watson Fothergill.  For entertainment there were night out at the theatre, lectures at the Mechanics and every October you could sample the thrills and spills of Goose Fair.

There was never a dull moment in Victorian Nottingham.
 
Book Chris’ talk and find out more!


Join Chris for a walk around Broad Marsh and Narrow Marsh to discover the hidden history and stories behind Nottingham's slums.