Context 161 - September 2019

40 C O N T E X T 1 6 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 The changes to permitted development rules regarding change of use to residential were discussed. They had had an impact on the Lace Market, with a loss of daytime vibrancy, but buildings were being brought back into use. Next was Sneinton Market, which had been transformed, with the help of ERDF funding, from one of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods to a thriving creative quarter and centre for digital industries. We then visited the People’s Hall, an extended former town house, built by a woman, Anne Morley, in 1750 and extended in the 1840s.The building has been vacant for a number of years but with the help of grant aid it was being taken on by a building preservation trust for conver- sion to a creative and digital hub.The discussion was around the interventions needed to bring the building into viable use and prioritisation of rooms in terms of significance, to minimise the impact of the work. The tour progressed through Goose Gate to the Old Market Square to view some of the com- pleted shopfront schemes: the Bromley House Library, an example of different funding streams enabling a multi-targeted approach allowing for grant aid for reinstatement of details and new tra- ditional shopfronts, to be carried in conjunction with more major repair schemes; and 34 Market Street, replacement shopfront to traditional detail. There was discussion about the level of grant aid, 75 per cent, and the cost of work. We were impressed by how the completed schemes had provided positive examples of the impact of improvements in encouraging other building owners to undertake repairs. The tour progressed to the South Side to review the regeneration proposals, notably the refreshing of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre to facilitate reinstatement of the historic route from the station into the city centre and castle. We finished by looking at further shopfront schemes in Carrington Street, finishing at the Urban Room (see page 2), where the whole annual school started. Lone Le Vay Elain Harwood gives a potted history of the city at the reception in St Mary’s, Nottingham. The front entrance of the People’s Hall (Photo: Lone Le Vay) Brick detail in a unit formerly used by Fyffe, the banana importers, at Sneinton Market (Photo: Lone Le Vay) Opposite: Terracotta sculpture of the Prudential Assurance Company in Queen Street, Nottingham, by Alfred Waterhouse, dating from 1880– 1890 and bearing the date 1848 (Photo: Jonathan Taylor)