Nottingham Civic Society - Architectural competitions

The publication last autumn by the City Council of a Guide for Architectural Competitions, particularly aimed at developers, provides an excuse to look at some of the local competitions in the recent and distant past.

At the moment there are three projects in the city at different stages of completion, whose design was won in open competition. Of these, two are public. The make over of the Old Market Square attracted over 60 architectural practices from the UK, Europe and North America. The proposals of the six finalists went on public display. The judges chose the scheme submitted by the Anglo-American practice of Gustafson Porter, which has just been completed. Preliminary work has started on the Centre for Contemporary Art at Weekday Cross. The selection process here was rather more secretive; only the winning design by Caruso St John was released to the media. The names of the seven finalists were revealed, these included local architects Marsh Grochowski, Burrell Foley Fischer, whose recent phase of work for the Broadway Media Centre is now finished, and Zaha Hadid who was a finalist, as were Caruso St John, in last year’s competition for the Stirling Prize for Architecture.

The third project, a private initiative by Bildurn Properties Ltd, is ‘The Pod’: a dramatic building at the top of Bottle Lane. A generous financial incentive attracted some of the top practices in the country, with Benson & Forsyth getting the final approval. There was a limited viewing of the runners up.

For what it is worth, I have always felt that the Ice Arena and the Trinity Square redevelopment would have benefited from architectural competitions. Developments have to be of some size to attract the big names to a competition and then to have some financial inducement for the architects to gamble time and money in the hope of landing the commission.

There were a number of buildings erected in Nottingham to competition winning designs in the second half of the nineteenth century. Most but not necessarily all of the competitions were mentioned or featured in The Builder.

The first of these was the former Midland Institute for the Blind, Chaucer Street, which attracted 39 entries in 1851 with Aichen & Capes of London declared the winners, and Thomas Simpson of Nottingham in second place. In 1857 C.H. Edwards of London won the St. Paul’s School competition.

The competition for a new bank for Messrs Wright & Co. at 1 Carlton Street in 1858 brought in 25 applicants with first place shared between Samuel Walker of Nottingham and again C.H. Edwards of London. Subsequently Edwards’ proposal was that erected. Although Evans & Jolley refaced the bank in the late 1880s some of the curves of Edwards’ façade can still be seen within. In the same year Charles Edwards, now of London and Nottingham, was successful with his designs for the Ragged School and in the following year Edwards came first in the competition vaguely named ‘Lodge, Clock and Fountain.’ This must have been the St. Michael’s Police Lodge, sometimes called Lammas Lodge. It was erected in 1860 in St. Michael’s Recreation Ground, Millstone Lane, later Huntingdon Street. It was demolished in 1975.

Also in 1859 R.C. Sutton produced winning plans for a Baptist Chapel on Derby Street and, with a partner listed as H. J. Paull, for ‘Schools’ on Parliament Street. These might have been Methodists’ schools, for several years later, in 1874; Sutton was the architect of the Parliament Street Methodist Church.

A competition for a new Grammar School in 1861 had 12 entries, with the first prize of £50 going to A. Wilson of Nottingham and the £20 second prize going to R.C. Sutton now with a different partner, E. Andre. It would seem this project never started in this form for the new Grammar School (High School) on Arboretum Street is of 1866-7 by Thomas Simpson, assisted by Hine and Evans, neither practice was among the original entries.

Hine and Evans, the leading architectural practice in the town, won the £20 first prize and J.S. Norris £20 as runner up for St. Ann’s Church, St Ann’s Well Road in 1863. Somewhat surprisingly when erected later in year the architect of the church was R.C. Clarke. It was demolished in 1971. Sutton and Andre were the winning architects of St. Saviour’s Church, Arkwright Street, also in 1863. I.C. Gilbert was second in the competition, which was judged by the eminent Victorian church ‘over-restorer’ Ewan Christian.

Twenty-four architects were attracted by the competition for a new Mechanics Institute, Trinity Square/Mansfield Road in 1867. Simpson received the £50 premium. R.C. Clarke & Son and R.C. Sutton entered but were unplaced. The building was demolished in 1964. Simpson was also a Town councillor. A letter to The Builder, dated 29th June 1867 under the heading ‘Nottingham Mechanics Hall Competition’ was quite pointed. ‘Sir, The first premium is awarded to an “Architect and Builder” of the town and a member of the Committee.’ (Signed) “Caught Napping”

On 25 January 1872 a special meeting of Notts County Cricket Club agreed to erect a pavilion at the Trent Bridge Ground. In a low-key competition, from the designs submitted that by Samuel Dutton Walker was chosen. It was for a two storey square block with single storey wings.

In 1873, 81 practices tried to get the commission for the Unitarian Congregational Chapel, High Pavement; Stuart Colman of Bristol was the successful architect; E.C. Robins and G.F. Roper of London were placed second; with G. Ogden of Bradford third. The judge was the eminent church architect T.H. Wyatt.

George Hine, son of the renowned architect T.C. Hine, set out on a specialised architectural career after winning the £100 first prize in the competition for the Nottingham Lunatic Asylum, Mapperley in 1875. There were seven entries; Evans and Jolley of Nottingham received the £50 second prize.

In 1876 the competition for the new University (College) Buildings on Shakespeare Street, resulted in the Yorkshire practice of Lockwood & Mawson beating off 24 other hopefuls to get the work. I. Tate and J. Langham of Leicester were runners up and T. Oliver of Newcastle third. The judges were the eminent architect Alfred Waterhouse, assisted by Fawcett of Cambridge

Three rather small and not documented competitions were for a Cemetery Church 1876 (nine entries) and 1877 (39 entries): the Beaconsfield Club 1884, won by W.G. Lees of Nottingham: and a Chapel and Sunday School on Gregory Boulevard 1895, with nine entries producing first place for Frederick Dixon of Manchester.

There was some advanced notice for ‘Municipal Buildings, Town Hall and Library’ for Nottingham in 1875, but the actual competition for ‘Municipal Buildings’ was set back until 1883. When the competition for ‘The Guildhall’ on Burton Street was finally launched with prizes totalling £600, it was stressed that business premises were required and not a town hall. From the eight finalists, Verity & Hunt of London and Leeds were chosen, although originally the first place was shared with F.H. Oldham of Manchester. G. Corson was third and received £100. It is not recorded if the £300 first prize was shared! The estimated cost of about £161,000 was brought down to £128,416 but the Council felt even this was too high and requested the architects to prepare a more modest scheme, which was duly delivered in an early French Renaissance style at around £65,000.

E.R. Robson, the influential first architect of the London School Board, judged the competition for a Higher Grade School, subsequently named the ‘Mundella School’. He selected the designs of R.C. Clarke for first place; the joint entry by the individual architects, R.C. and E.R. Sutton, father and son, he placed second; with Evans and Son third. All three placed entries were from Nottingham. Clarke’s rather elegant school was demolished several years ago.

In 1896 the competition for a new Workhouse at Bagthorpe was announced. This was a huge undertaking spread over 65 acres, which was brought about by the demolition of the old workhouse on York Street as part of the clearance for the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway’s (later the Great Central Railway’s) new central Nottingham station, subsequently appropriately named Victoria Station, and its approaches. With nine schemes entered from the top Nottingham practices, that proposed by Arthur Marshall and George Turner was chosen. The Sutton family pairing of father and son, were runners up; and another Nottingham practice, Brewill and Bailey, were third. The buildings now form part of the City Hospital complex.

Moving forward a quarter of a century, the design for a New Town Hall, the present Council House, was in effect handed to T. Cecil Howitt in 1923/4 whilst he was the City’s Housing Surveyor, at the time working, through a Council economy measure, from within the City Engineer’s Department. This was in spite of demands from the local architectural establishment and others to hold an open competition for what was then an enormous undertaking for a relatively inexperienced – but supremely confident architect.1 However some eighty years on the gamble by Alderman Herbert Bowles, Chairman of the Council’s Estates Committee, inviting Howitt ‘to put on paper a scheme for a new Exchange’ has certainly paid off with the Council House now Nottingham’s iconic building.2

1. In April 1922 Howitt produced the £300 council house, by late 1923 he was actively setting out plans for a £500,000 Council House!
2. The Council, falling in behind the Bowles/Howitt initiative, took the cunning precautions of getting the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, J. Alfred Gotch and the RIBA Senior Vice-President E. Guy Dawber to scrutinise the plans and suggest amendments before they were released to the press and the public.

Several local competitions were not covered by The Builder. One was for Corporation Buildings in Basford in 1875, which followed the purchase of the Gas Light and Coke Company by the Borough Council the previous year. The scheme was for fifty houses to be built near the Basford Gasworks. The competition was judged by M.O. Tarbotton, the Borough Engineer, and Dr. Edward Seaton, Medical Officer of Health. The winner was a rising young architect, Fothergill Watson, under the pseudonym of ‘Gas’. Other unsuccessful and unknown architects entered as ‘Light and Air’ and ‘Rough but Ready’. The block of forty ‘houses’ erected never became popular with the public and some time before 1901 the building was pulled down without any ceremony.

Another competition, for a ‘Workmen’s Dwelling Block’, was advertised in either The Builder or Building News in 1875. From a number of entries, that submitted by the Nottingham practice of Bakewell and Bromley under the name of ‘Economy’ was awarded the first prize of £50. The second prize of £25 was given to Holtom and Connon of Dewsbury whose plans were submitted under the pseudonym of ‘Experientia’. ‘Rough but Ready’ was again unsuccessful! On November 11 1876 it was decided to name the block ‘Victoria Buildings’. In 1990 after comprehensive modernisation the block was renamed Park View Court and 80 refurbished flats were put on the market.

A third essentially local competition was for the redevelopment of the unhealthy area known as the ‘Rookeries’ between Long Row Central and Upper Parliament Street. Details of the competition were sent to local architects in May 1881 and the original closing date for entries was 1 August 1881. No doubt in the hope of attracting more architects to enter the time was extended. Eventually nine practices responded and on 21 October 1881 the first prize of 50 guineas was given to the plan labelled ‘Sweetness and Light’ entered by Evans and Jolley. Second prize of 25 guineas went to the plan marked ‘Albany’ from Truman and Pratt. Several well-known local architects were unsuccessful. Alas only written descriptions of all of the schemes survive. The Council exercised its right to ignore all of the entries and several years later turned to the Borough Engineer and Surveyor, Arthur Brown, for a suitable scheme. Eventually King and Queen Streets were cut through the area in 1891-2.

Ken Brand
March 2007

ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS