Nottingham... and do you love your city?

[Fermit]

DRFC1879 said:

Mem Saab again used to be fantastic but it's probably ten years since my last visit. A bit more upmarket than your typical city centre curry house!

It is great, you just need to be on the look out for flying forks.

[raceboy]

I'm guessing Mogal still has the same decor it had 30 years ago and the cheesey signed pictures from 70'S TV stars on the walls.

[DRFC1879]

I bet a few of them are "problematic" these days!

[Zoon]

JulianPH said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

Is Cucamara bar still about? Fond memories from my teens to maybe 25, every Nottingham night out started there, grabbing some cocktails to get us going. It was on an alley between market square vicinity - to the right of Yates - to Upper Parliament Street.

gus607 said:

Yes it is !
http://cucamara.co.uk/

I was at the opening night and can't believe it is still going!!!

Have got hammered in there a few times.

[Bannock]

Ah my University city. I so wanted to stay there after graduating that I spent a year working full time in a pub (The Grove Hotel, Lenton Boulevard), whilst trying to find a "proper" job. I failed and moved back to the Thames Valley/West London, where I'd grown up.

Used to get a load of regular minor celebrities in the pub, because of the Central TV studios - the local news people LIke Anna Soubry, and Jim Bowen out of that Bullseye. The latter was an ignorant pig, treated pub staff like st, the former was a very nice lady. Also used to serve a geezer called Vivian MacKerrell, which was incredibly exciting to me as the film which was loosely based on his character (look it up if you don't know it) is my all time favourite.

Long time ago now. Left in 1993. I expect much has changed. I did go back a couple of years ago to visit some friends who are still there, they were locals I got to know whilst working in the pub. Great bunch of lads and I wish I could get to see them and go out boozing on the town there more often.

[Roofless Toothless]

They have a nice way with words in Nottingham.

My son was a student there some 20 years ago. He told me that he saw a sign in a pizza restaurant window that read:

SPECIAL LUNCHTIME OFFER

All the pizza you can eat £4.50

And for an extra 50p we’ll toss in the salad too!

[DRFC1879]

Bannock said:

Also used to serve a geezer called Vivian MacKerrell, which was incredibly exciting to me as the film which was loosely based on his character (look it up if you don't know it) is my all time favourite.

Did he demand to have some booze?

[Bannock]

DRFC1879 said:

Bannock said:

Also used to serve a geezer called Vivian MacKerrell, which was incredibly exciting to me as the film which was loosely based on his character (look it up if you don't know it) is my all time favourite.

Did he demand to have some booze?

Always. He liked Theakstons Old Peculier.

[kambites]

I went to university in Nottingham so lived there for three years. As far as I could tell it was a decent enough city but nothing remotely special; even after three years I still got bemused by being called "duck". I live in (a suburb of) Southampton now and it's... similar; but without the ducks.

I think I'm just not a city person.

[Lotusgone]

Some interesting memories triggered with this thread.

Born there, lived in Shelford, then Beeston before being dragged against my will to live in Lincolnshire (the county with the least to recommend it).

Anyone else go to Roundhill school? No pub recollections, but do remember the best ever cream meringues from Birds, also a garage near the ice rink called the Mini Clinic. Was that one of Sytner's early ventures?

The city centre was rather downbeat last time I went in during daytime. There used to be a good bookshop - Sisson & Parkers? - long gone.

[DRFC1879]

Was Sisson & Parkers the one on Hockley? If so I really liked a mooch in there and picked up a couple of nice coffee table "art" publications from there.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Bannock said:

Ah my University city. I so wanted to stay there after graduating that I spent a year working full time in a pub (The Grove Hotel, Lenton Boulevard)

The Grove is now an abandoned shell. It will end up being student accommodation like nearly every other building in Nottingham.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

DRFC1879 said:

Was Sisson & Parkers the one on Hockley? If so I really liked a mooch in there and picked up a couple of nice coffee table "art" publications from there.

Pretty sure it was (at some time) on the corner of Shakespeare Street opposite the Victoria Centre clock tower entrance. (Where PC World is now)

[Lotusgone]

DRFC1879 said:

Was Sisson & Parkers the one on Hockley? If so I really liked a mooch in there and picked up a couple of nice coffee table "art" publications from there.

No, it was on Wheeler Gate. That was only after I googled it (with imprecise memories of it being between Parliament Sq and the Broadmarsh), finding an article on it closing in 2005.

[Bannock]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Bannock said:

Ah my University city. I so wanted to stay there after graduating that I spent a year working full time in a pub (The Grove Hotel, Lenton Boulevard)

The Grove is now an abandoned shell. It will end up being student accommodation like nearly every other building in Nottingham.

What a bloody shame. And of course it's Castle Boulevard, not Lenton. My mistake.

It was a great pub, when I was first in Nottingham it was an old man's boozer, unimproved since the 50s or 60s, red plastic benches, formica tables, all that stuff.. then it was transformed into a real ale pub with a really nice interior refit, top quality bar and all that. This would be around 1990. It's in an absolutely ideal location to be rammed with students 7 days a week, and indeed it was when I worked there, weekends it'd be 5 deep at the bar all night Friday and Saturday. Packed out Sunday lunchtime too. The landlord was an absolute stickler for beer quality, and by God was the beer good. He even made Home Bitter and Mild taste great. His Theakston XB was nectar, never tasted anything as good since. I reckon he must have had a turnover of around a million a year, which was an estimate us staff made one night after work, during a staff-only lock-in sampling the XB...even the local copper used to drop by and make sure we were OK when he saw the lights on through the curtains after hours, always slipped him a quick half of course...

What went wrong? Any idea? I appreciate that I was there, blimey, can it be 30 years ago? Lots changes in that time I know, but surely it's still a student area? Must be a prime building for a busy boozer?

I remember my first week at University, and was handed the student union welcome pamphlet - on the cover page was a headline saying "Never drink a pint of Shipstones, my son..." How right they were.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Bannock said:

What a bloody shame. And of course it's Castle Boulevard, not Lenton. My mistake.

What went wrong? Any idea? I appreciate that I was there, blimey, can it be 30 years ago? Lots changes in that time I know, but surely it's still a student area? Must be a prime building for a busy boozer?

Still a very busy student area. You would have thought it would have been a success. On the opposite side of the road used to be the Lancers, that too succumbed many years ago.

[Audicab]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

If you came out of Madisons and turned right up Wollaton Street there was another club on the left. I had my 21st there and got into a massive brawl outside after. Was it Samantha’s?

Slightly late to the party but was it Arrabella's, I used to go there after work from Number 10.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Audicab said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

If you came out of Madisons and turned right up Wollaton Street there was another club on the left. I had my 21st there and got into a massive brawl outside after. Was it Samantha’s?

Slightly late to the party but was it Arrabella's, I used to go there after work from Number 10.

[Bannock]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Bannock said:

What a bloody shame. And of course it's Castle Boulevard, not Lenton. My mistake.

What went wrong? Any idea? I appreciate that I was there, blimey, can it be 30 years ago? Lots changes in that time I know, but surely it's still a student area? Must be a prime building for a busy boozer?

Still a very busy student area. You would have thought it would have been a success. On the opposite side of the road used to be the Lancers, that too succumbed many years ago.

Blimey, yeah, I remember the 17/21st Lancers. Modern building, wasn't it? I don't recall a single student ever venturing in there, proper scary locals' pub...we did used to go The Happy Return at the bottom of the Derby Road flats a lot though. I remember watching the 1990 World Cup semi final in there. Which also reminds me...there was a cinema near there on Derby Road too, what was it called? One of those old-fashioned 30s ones, it was the last place I ever saw a film with an interval in it - enough time for a pint in the cinema bar before it restarted! I think it was Kimberley Ales in there, could be wrong though.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Grove was already boarded up in 2012



Lancers



Now Tesco's