Open Spaces
Wollaton Hall
Newstead Abbey
Green's Mill
The Arboretum
Royal Centre
Town Bell
Waste disposal
Open Spaces
I was recently called in to Radio Nottingham to give a view on the current
debate surrounding residential gardens and the fact that they are currently
classified as ‘brownfield sites’. This in effect means that many
suburban gardens could be the subject of planning applications for apartment
blocks and high density housing without any of the protection provided by
‘greenfield’ or conservation area status.
This is indeed currently a worrying state of affairs when there is more and more pressure for new homes. While we must acknowledge the need for additional housing, we must also bear in mind the needs of existing communities – the requirements of privacy, of bringing up children in pleasant surroundings – and we must also be aware of the importance of gardens as the green lungs of the city, part of its character, an opportunity to foster physical and mental well-being for the whole family and also as a valuable wildlife corridor. The role of gardens in people’s lives, as a form of recreation and rest as well as a possible source of food production, was recognised in the twentieth century’s Garden City movement – for instance, Welwyn and Letchworth – and the importance of gardens remains just as great in today’s hectic climate. Examples of garden loss are increasing in Nottingham and the outlying suburbs and the city becomes increasingly hemmed in. We need to resist this trend.
Nottingham’s Open Spaces Strategy, currently nearing completion, deals with the issues of the city’s public open spaces – another area of loss and erosion – and we hope that increased awareness of the importance of green space will also lead to greater understanding of the role of domestic gardens in the overall picture.
Wollaton Hall
Talking of public open spaces, there is good news of three of our publicly
owned buildings and their associated parks. The lottery-funded work at Wollaton
Hall and Park is progressing well with the Hall being sensitively restored
– and in some areas rescued from the effects of weather, vandalism,
the flagpole’s vibrations and Wyattville’s fancy but very heavy
chimneys. The Camellia House, whose earlier restoration was part-funded by
the Civic Society, has been completely dismantled, its columns repaired, its
windows reglazed and is now ready for re-assembly; the camellias, by the way,
have been kept under plastic and have survived well. We are looking forward
eagerly to the completion of the work on the building (including the spectacular
Prospect Room and the 1920s Bird Gallery) and its full re-opening next year,
and the on-going work in the Courtyard Buildings and the Park. (Note that
as part of Heritage Open Days a talk on the restoration work will be given
at the Hall at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 9 September.)
Newstead Abbey
Newstead Abbey and its Park are also undergoing restoration work: the house,
abbey ruins and such features as the Japanese Garden all feature in the restoration
plans and although we tend to forget that, on account of distance, Newstead
is a city property, we should be equally pleased that another of Nottingham’s
gems is receiving comprehensive and sensitive attention.
Green's Mill
On a smaller scale, but just as unusual in its setting as a city historical
property is Green’s Mill: one of an extremely small number – I
can only think of one other – of urban windmills. It stands proudly
on the Sneinton heights and is currently having its adjacent park restored
and renewed, and a new building designed to accommodate an auxiliary machine
to facilitate grinding on windless days (contributions invited and gratefully
accepted towards the construction!).
The Arboretum
The Arboretum, of course, has already received it own restoration; while waiting
in the wings is Highfields Park, where plans are emerging for the imaginative
restoration and development of this legacy of Jesse Boot to the citizens of
Nottingham. And we must not forget the grand open space of the Old Market
Square, due to be completed in November this year (but it’s a shame
that cost prohibited the use of any British stone in the construction). However,
the bottom line for all these open spaces is management: no matter how excellent
the restoration, if it is not managed and protected adequately the whole time,
effort and money are wasted.
Royal Centre
The Civic Society’s own restoration project, carried out together with
the City, in particular the Royal Centre management, is now largely complete
and ready for launching. This is the Dress Circle Terrace, where the former
lighting installation has been removed, the flooring replaced and the large
trough replanted, in memory of Ray Banks, the long-standing and fondly remembered
Secretary of the Society. The project is now entering its second phase, inspired
by the Civic Society’s aspiration to see a new, replacement art installation.
This will take the form of a projected art and ‘noticeboard of Nottingham
events’ feature on the theatre’s fly tower.
Town Bell
Another, smaller, project inspired by the Society has followed the discovery
of the early nineteenth-century Town Bell previously housed at the former
Town Hall at Weekday Cross and then noticed recently among a fascinating miscellany
of items in the museums storehouse. The bell is currently in Loughborough
being restored by the founders and being fitted on a new frame; it will soon,
we hope, find a new home in the Council House.
It has been encouraging recently to see in the letter pages, and elsewhere in the Nottingham Evening Post, an on-going and lively interest in Nottingham’s built environment The message coming through from the citizens of Nottingham seems increasingly to be that we have a city to be proud of and that we don’t want literally – to lose sight of it behind walls of inappropriately-scaled and gimmicky buildings.
The recent trend seems to be to endeavour to disguise monolithic or mediocre buildings with bright colours. There is no doubt that the use of coloured materials in structures can be effective – witness the polychrome cathedrals of Europe, the City of London’s subtle green Swiss Re (Gherkin) tower and our own award-winning Experian NG2 building combining blue and clear glass, and the green oxidised copper of Highfields Lakeside Pavilion – but these buildings are also intrinsically interesting in their form and the colour is employed to complement form and to respond to function and/or context. This is very different from covering or randomly adorning what is virtually a rampart with panels of coloured glass or other materials: what will these buildings look like in five or ten years time? Much as some thirty-year-old buildings look today, I imagine.
We should be thinking of the future of our city, its appearance and prosperity, as well as looking at the immediate effects or benefits for citizens and investors.
Waste disposal
The debate surrounding the proposed expansion of the Eastcroft Incinerator
is an example of this. This may have been seen as a good commercial and environmental
development, but public opinion has not concurred with this. Health risks
from pollution, increased traffic movement, a resistance to dealing with ‘other
people’s rubbish’ and a desire to see increased recycling rather
than potentially toxic and wasteful incineration – not to mention the
visual pollution of the plant with its all-dominating chimney – all
militate in the public’s mind not only against any expansion of the
incinerator but also against the plant in its existing form and in its existing
prime city location.
It is time to rethink and replace our waste disposal methods with systems more suited to our twenty-first century city and to our global environment.
Hilary Silvester
August 2006
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