Report - Nottingham Guildhall, Police & Fire Station March 2024

[mookster]

Chalk this up as one of those places that I really should have done a while ago, but I rarely ever venture eastwards of Derby when heading up that way and hadn't actually found myself exploring anything in Nottingham since Radford Mills way back in 2012!

A brief portion of history shamelessly stolen from @MotionlessMike 's excellent post from a while back...

Nottingham Guildhall was constructed in 1887/88 in a French renaissance revival style by London architects Thomas Verity and George Henry Hunt, replacing the original 18th century Guildhall which was nearby on Weekday Cross in the Lace Market area. The new Guildhall contained the Nottingham city magistrates court with the police & fire stations in a separate building on South Sherwood Street – the latter pair being in use until the opening of the new central police & fire stations in 1938. The Guildhall was last used by Nottingham City Council staff as office space from 1996 until 2010 when they moved over to Loxley House.

Plans to redevelop the site into a 162-bed hotel have been floating about for a few years now and currently a joint venture by Locksley Hotels and Ascena is looking to deliver the following:

‘[A] 13-storey, £120 million project aims to restore the Guildhall to its former glory, as well as build a large new block behind it.
Existing courtrooms in the building will be turned into bar and restaurant facilities, retaining original listed features.
The Guildhall building itself will house the main entrance to the hotel, while the extensions at the back of the building would be knocked down.’

It really has been taking a battering over the last few years but I was still very happy to finally see it, and thanks to a tip-off from @crusader we found ourselves inside pretty quick. The place is a real labyrinth and we headed off in the vague direction of the courthouse, getting lost numerous times but eventually we bumbled our way into the courts part of the massive building. From there we looked around the Guildhall, spent a lot of time in the basement/vaults areas which I found very interesting, pretty much glossed over the completely destroyed police station part and then quite by accident found ourselves in the much cleaner fire station, which mustn't get too much in the way of foot traffic from imbeciles because it's so much cleaner than most of the building.

After spending much longer than expected inside and having a jolly good time, we re-emerged onto the street like nothing had happened and went for a very well deserved Morrisons lunch.

Continued...
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[mookster]

Thanks for looking ​

 

[Mikeymutt🐶]

Great report mate. Still lovely, shame it’s getting trashed now.

 

[Dean26664]

Great pictures and report, don’t live too far from this and would love to visit 👍

 

[JaffaTB]

good report, didn't see the fire station bit on my visit, i may have to go back!

 

[GRONK]

Lovely stuff, nice to see it again

 

[Mr Budge]

Great report, love seeing this place come up 🫡

 

[albino-jay]

looks a bit battered now, but still a good un. Nice work mate

 

[Bikin Glynn]

God the owners / council are idiots letting this happen!

 

[Calamity Jane]

Nice coverage. Some great shots of the police station, more areas than I've seen previously I think. 👍

 

[HughieD]

Great set and still well worth a look.

 

[Bazza74]

Was in here yesterday, someone had pulled one of the boards off the front of the court building and a number of teenagers where running wild and throwing slates off the roof. Scared the life out of them, they thought we were the Feds for some reason?
A man turned up to board it up as we where leaving along with the police. Shame its being left to get vandalised so easily.

 

[mookster]

Was in here yesterday, someone had pulled one of the boards off the front of the court building and a number of teenagers where running wild and throwing slates off the roof. Scared the life out of them, they thought we were the Feds for some reason?
A man turned up to board it up as we where leaving along with the police. Shame its being left to get vandalised so easily.

Speaks volumes of the IQ of those sort of idiots, who couldn't find and use the nice discreet access down one side of it.

 

[AlternativeAdventuring]

Still looking very good! Nice report