Early 20th Century Nottingham (1900 – 1949)

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Go back to 19th Century Nottingham (1800 – 1899)

1900

The three circular wards of the Jubilee Wing at the General Hospital were opened.

19 May 1900

Mafeking celebrations took place in Nottingham.

24 May 1900

Victoria Station opened in the centre of Nottingham on the new Great Central Railway.

17 December 1900

Forest House, Chestnut Grove, off Mansfield Road, was officially opened as the new Children’s Hospital by the Duchess of Portland.

1 January 1901

The first electric tram route ran between Sherwood and the Market Place.

1 January 1901

Lady Bay Bridge was opened.

22 January 1901

Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

25 January 1901

King Edward VII proclaimed by the Mayor.

1901

Edgar Purnell Hooley, County Surveyor to Nottinghamshire, accidentally discovered tar macadam. By 1902 Hooley had patented the process of heating tar, adding slag to the mix and then breaking stones within the mixture to form a smooth road surface. Nottingham’s Radcliffe Road became the first tarmac road in the world.

1901

The Nottingham Pickling Society welcomed women to join for the first time in its history.

11 July 1901

Vernon Park in Basford was opened.

23 July 1901

Electric trams replaced horse trams on the recently extended tramline to Bulwell.

25 July 1901

The official opening of Nottingham’s new Victoria Embankment along the River Trent. The ceremony was performed by Alderman W Lambert, with the Mayor, F R Radford, in attendance, along with the City Police Band.

21 October 1901

Electric trams replaced horse trams on the Trent Bridge tram route.

21 February 1902

Electric trams started running on the new Market Place to St Ann’s Well Road route.

13 May 1902

The new Market Place to Mapperley tramline opened.

30 June 1902

A Coronation bonfire was held on Mapperley Plains at 10pm; a nationally agreed time.

7 July 1902

Public service commenced on the new Nottingham Road tramline.

July 1902

Nottingham’s General Lunatic Asylum, on the east side of Carlton Road in Sneinton, closed when the new asylum at Saxondale, near Radcliffe-on-Trent, was opened. For many years one wing of the old building was used by the Dakeyne Street Boys’ Club. All that is left now is one pillar on Dakeyne Street.

30 September 1902

Public service commenced on the new Lenton tramline via Castle Boulevard, Lenton Boulevard and Radford Boulevard.

8 November 1902

The new Wilford Road tramline started public service.

22 January 1903

John Philip Sousa and his band visited Nottingham.

18 March 1903

The official opening of the Bagthorpe Workhouse and Infirmary.

28 May 1903

The Midlands Industrial Exhibition opened at Trent Bridge.

17 January 1904

Nottingham’s new Midland Station opened on Carrington Street.

4 July 1904

The Midland Counties Industrial Exhibition was destroyed by fire.

28 July 1905

Queen Victoria’s statue was unveiled in the Market Place by the Duke of Portland.

5 August 1905

Whitehall’s tenement factory, on Wollaton Street, was destroyed by fire.

6 November 1905

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was made a Freeman of the City.

26 March 1906

The first motor omnibus route on Carlton Road, Nottingham, with the opening of the Nottingham and Carlton Road District Motor Omnibus Service.

22 April 1906

The first Albert Hall was destroyed by fire.

30 May 1906

The Bath and West Show was held at Wollaton Park.

12 September 1906

The Suspension Bridge over the River Trent at Nottingham opened.

15 September 1906

King Edward VII made a private visit to Lord Middleton at Wollaton Hall.

27 February 1907

Nottingham artist Dudley Dexter Watkins was born; he illustrated classics, but is best known for memorable cartoon characters in D. C. Thompson’s comics such as Lord Snooty, Biffo the Bear and Desperate Dan.

14 March 1907

The new tram service commenced between the Market Place and Colwick Road.

20 August 1907

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club won the County Cricket Championship.

1908

Nottingham’s first public telephone box was installed in Theatre Square.

1908

Nottingham Castle gatehouse and parapets were restored and given new dressings and slate roofs.

1908

Bartons began their Nottingham to Long Eaton bus service.

4 February 1908

Nottingham YMCA set up one of the country’s first ever Scout troops; 1st Nottingham YMCA Scouts, following a visit from the Scouting movement founder Robert Baden-Powell.

17 February 1908

The first motor taxi appeared in Nottingham.

16 October 1908

The Suffragettes held a demonstration in Nottingham.

3 November 1908

The two foresters with longbows supporting the shield on the Nottingham Coat of Arms were considered unsatisfactory and were changed to two stags.

1 January 1909

The first payment of Government Old Age Pension was made.

17 March 1909

The new Albert Hall was opened.

8 July 1909

George ‘Rusticus’ Hickling, a prolific poet and author, died at the age of 82. George was born in 1827 in Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, and worked as framework knitter from the age of thirteen until his retirement around 1900. He was married to Ann Smart from about 1850 until her death at the age of 56 in 1880.

9 November 1909

Jesse Boot was knighted.

1 February 1910

The Nottingham Labour Exchange opened.

24 March 1910

Nottingham’s first purpose built cinema, the Victoria Electric Palace, opened on Milton Street.

3 May 1910

Bulwell municipal golf course opened.

1910

Pringles Picture Palace opened. Renamed Goldsmith Picture House two years later, it closed as a cinema in 1941 and became the Little Theatre, taken over by the new Nottingham Playhouse in 1948.

3 September 1910

Notts County’s Meadow Lane ground was opened.

30 September 1910

Paul de Lesseps landed the first aeroplane to visit Nottingham at Colwick.

30 September 1910

The world’s first aerial press photograph was taken over Nottingham.

29 October 1910

The inaugural recital took place on the City Organ at the Albert Hall, donated by Sir Jesse Boot

7 November 1910

Major R S Baden Powell came to a Boy Scout demonstration in the city.

3/4 December 1910

There were great floods in Nottingham and district, the highest levels since 1875.

16 December 1910

The new Carlton Road tramline started public service.

28 January 1911

John Philip Sousa’s band played at the Albert Hall.

22 June 1911

Coronation celebrations for King George V and Queen Mary took place in Nottingham.

6 December 1911

International rugby was played at Meadow Lane; England 5 points Australasians 3 points.

13 March 1912

The Eye Infirmary opened on the Ropewalk.

1912

The 18th century Georgian grandstand on the old Forest racecourse site was demolished.²⁶

16 November 1912

New City Scout’s headquarters were opened by Lieutenant General Sir R. S. Baden Powell.

1913

Nottingham had seven cinemas.

11 January 1913

The great blizzard; trade, traffic and sport was abandoned.

12 February 1913

Windows were smashed and pillar boxes attacked by suffragettes in Nottingham.

12 May 1913

The Nottingham Boat Club premises and boats on the Trent Embankment were partially destroyed in a fire started by suffragettes, because it was a men-only organisation.

7 June 1913

Nottingham Britannia Rowing Club’s new boat house was opened.

10 July 1913

A Davis Cup Lawn Tennis Tournament took place in the Park.

28 July 1913

There was wild disorder at a Suffragist meeting in the Market Place.

11 August 1913

The Reform Club opened in the city.

15 August 1913

The Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Tramways Company opened the Nottingham to Ripley tram route. The trams were known as ‘Ripley Rattlers’.

11 November 1913

Commander Evans, of Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, lectured in the city.

1914

Nottingham was now a city of a quarter of a million people.

20 February 1914

The Amateur Billiard Championship final was held in Nottingham.

14 June 1914

The Carlton Road tram route was extended through to Carlton.

24 June 1914

King George V and Queen Mary visited the city.

28 June 1914

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria lead to the start of the First World War.

10 August 1914

The ‘Robin Hoods’ Battalion, Sherwood Foresters regiment, left Nottingham for war service.

25 September 1914

The Derby Road tram route was completed and public service commenced.

5 October 1914

The first contingent of wounded soldiers arrived at Nottingham General Hospital.

1 January 1915

Public service started on the Arnold extension of the Sherwood tram route.

12 July 1915

The Booth Memorial Hall was opened on King Edward Street.

19 August 1915

The first sod was cut for the National Projectile Factory (ROF) in the Meadows.

October 1915

The first female tram conductors in Nottingham were employed.

6 March 1916

Miss Alice Astill became Nottingham’s first female taxi driver.

27 May 1916

The first 6 inch shells were produced by the National Projectile Factory (later the R.O.F. – Royal Ordnance Factory) in the Meadows.

24 September 1916

Nottingham endured its first and only air raid of the Great War. In a short attack in the early hours, Zeppelin L-17 dropped bombs in a line from Eastcroft on one side of the city to Victoria Station on the other, killing three and injuring sixteen others. A number of buildings, including the Walter Fountain, were damaged.

16 December 1916

King George V made a wartime visit to local munitions factories.

19 February 1917

Freedom of the City was given to Flight Commander Albert Ball.

7 May 1917

First World War pilot Captain Albert Ball was killed in action over France.

8 June 1917

The Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously to Captain Albert Ball.

23 January 1918

The Annual Conference of the Labour Party was held in Nottingham’s Albert Hall.

1 July 1918

A substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory in Chilwell, near Nottingham, was destroyed in an explosion of eight tons of TNT. In all 134 people were killed, of whom only 32 could be positively identified, and a further 250 were injured.

11 November 1918

The Nottingham Evening Post front page rejoiced in the signing of the Armistice earlier that day, signalling a cease fire and the end of hostilities with Germany.

1919

Raleigh was the largest cycle works in the world, producing about 100,000 cycles a year.

1919

The Nottingham City Police force recruited its first female constable.

1919

Brough Superior began making motorcycles in its factory on Haydn Road.

1919

Harry and Alfred Wheatcroft established the Nottingham horticultural firm of Wheatcroft Brothers.

1919

The Women’s Hospital moved from Castle Gate to new purpose-built premises on Peel Street.

5 May 1919

The City Council agreed to buy sites at Sherwood and Stockhill for housing.

19 July 1919

The Sherwood Foresters and the ‘Robin Hoods’ returned to Nottingham.

29 October 1919

Construction of the City Council’s first housing estate started at Stockhill Lane.

12 February 1920

A Borough Extension enquiry was opened by the Ministry of Health.

June 1920

The first tenants started to move into the City Council’s new council housing estate at Stockhill Lane.

30 October 1920

Nottingham Evening Post: Nottingham Corporation announced the building of a new arterial road (Valley Road), from Daybrook, along the valley of the brook, to Hucknall Road and then on to Fairfax Street, at a cost of £126,000.

22 August 1921

The Elite Cinema, Upper Parliament Street, was opened by the Mayor.

1 June 1922

Nottingham’s Woodthorpe Grange Park opening ceremony was held.

14 June 1922

The foundation stone of East Midlands University was laid.

5 August 1922

Valley Road was opened.

1923

Highfields Park was partly opened to the public.

1 August 1923

The Prince of Wales visited the Boots factory in Nottingham, during his tour of the Midlands. He also opened the Memorial Nurses Home at Nottingham General Hospital and laid the foundation stone for the war memorial and memorial gardens on the Victoria Embankment.

4 April 1924

A H Whipple was appointed the city’s first Director of Education.

1 September 1924

Nottingham City Council purchased Wollaton Hall and Park for £200,000.

16 September 1924

Nottingham Broadcasting Relay Station was opened; one of the country’s first local radio stations, Radio 5 NG, broadcast from Bridlesmith Gate in Nottingham.

1924

The main Long Row and Market Street frontages of Nottingham’s Griffin and Spalding department store were rebuilt with a facing of Portland Stone.

24 April 1925

The Nottingham Palais de Dance opened.

17 September 1925

The first section of Nottingham’s Wilford Power Station was completed; it was a coal-fired power station situated on the north bank of the River Trent. It was authorised in 1920, construction took five years and cost £700,000.

5 October 1925

The City Council decided to buy the Lenton Abbey estate for £20,000.

2 April 1926

A widened portion of Trent Bridge was opened, making the bridge 80ft wide.

12 April 1926

A farewell dinner was held as Nottingham City Council met for the last time in the old Exchange.

4 May 1926

The General Strike began.

22 May 1926

Wollaton Park was opened to the public.

7 June 1926

The Woodborough Road tram route was extended from the city boundary to Westdale Lane.

15 June 1926

Demolition began of the old Exchange in the Market Place.

1926

Highfields Park was fully opened to the public.

1926

Local artist Arthur Spooner painted his well known canvas of Nottingham’s Goose Fair.

28 October 1926

Wollaton Hall Museum was opened by the Mayor.

22 January 1927

A telephone service opened between Nottingham and the United States of America.

17 March 1927

The foundation stone of the new Exchange (Council House) was laid.

10 April 1927

Nottingham’s first trolley bus ran on the number 5 route to Basford. The service operated between King Street in the City Centre, Mansfield Road, Sherwood Rise and Nottingham Road in Basford.

16 April 1927

The Derby Road tram route was extended from Gregory Street to Wollaton Park Gates.

30 April 1927

The new Player Wing of the Nottingham Children’s Hospital at Forest House, Chestnut Grove, off Mansfield Road, was opened by H.R.H. Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles.

1927

Nottingham’s Carmelite Friary (White Friary) was demolished when Friar Lane was widened. It had been replaced or partly rebuilt in the 17th century.

6-8 October 1927

The last Goose Fair was held in the Old Market Square before moving to the Forest.

11 November 1927

The War Memorial Arch was opened on Victoria Embankment.

4 March 1928

The author Alan Sillitoe was born in Nottingham.

6 March 1928

Watson Fothergill, an architect in Nottingham from 1870 to 1912, died and was buried in the Church Cemetery on Mansfield Road. Christened Fothergill Watson, he changed his name to Watson Fothergill by deed poll in 1892. Watson designed over 100 unique buildings in Nottingham, in a characteristic Victorian Gothic revival style.

2 April 1928

The new layout of the Market Place was approved.

10 April 1928

The last execution in Nottingham took place at the New County Gaol (Bagthorpe prison).

10 July 1928

King George V and Queen Mary opened the new University College buildings at Highfields.

10 July 1928

King George V and Queen Mary visited Nottingham’s Woodthorpe Park.

30 July 1928

King George V made the Chief City Magistrate Lord Mayor instead of Mayor.

31 October 1928

Nottingham’s radio station, 5NG, closed down.

21 November 1928

The new Central ‘Covered’ Market was opened. The market was relocated to the new building on King Edward Street from the Market Square, when the new Council House was being built and the Market Square was being redesigned with its ‘slabs’.

1928

The Council House lions were sculpted in the Old Market Square, Nottingham. Leo and Oscar were modelled by Nottingham sculptor Joseph Else, the principal of the Nottingham School of Art on Waverley Street, and the cutting was done by A W Pond.

1928

Four historic murals, including Robin Hood and his Merry Men, were painted in the dome of Nottingham’s Exchange Arcade by Nottingham artist Noel Denholm Davis (1876-1950).

1928

Alterations to the Market Square during building of the new Council House also resulted in the tram tracks on Long Row being moved to give more road space.

28 February 1929

Sir Jesse Boot was elevated to a peerage.

4 March 1929

Tollerton municipal aerodrome scheme was adopted by Nottingham City Council.

22 May 1929

Nottingham’s new Exchange (the Council House) was opened by the Duke of Windsor, then Prince of Wales.

24 June 1929

‘Talkies’ were shown in Nottingham for the first time. The film ‘Lucky Boy’ attracted large crowds to the Elite Picture Theatre in Upper Parliament Street.

1 July 1929

Nottingham City Council met for the first time in the new Council House.

27 July 1929

Tollerton municipal aerodrome was opened.

31 July 1929

Nuthall Temple was demolished.

3 September 1929

Nottinghamshire won the County Cricket Championship.

5 November 1929

The Women’s Hospital on Peel Street was opened.

6 June 1930

Professor Albert Einstein lectured at Nottingham’s University College (now the University of Nottingham).

9 July 1930

The National Rose Show opened in the Arboretum.

6 October 1930

The city accepted Sir Julien Cahn’s gift of Newstead Abbey.

1931

A Nottingham company started to produce the award winning pork pies that went on to be known nationally as Pork Farms pork pies.

1931

Slum clearance took place in Nottingham’s Narrow Marsh area, such as around Knotted Alley and Foundry Yard.

16 July 1931

Newstead Abbey was handed over to the city by the Prime Minister of Greece.

17 October 1931

Mahatma Gandhi made a brief visit to lecture in Nottingham.

9 November 1931

The first woman elected to hold the office of Sheriff of Nottingham was Councillor Mrs C M Harper.

1932

The first radio message was sent from a police car in Nottingham.

1932

Nottingham City Police force was the first in the country to introduce walkie-talkie radios.

1932

Parliament Street and Huntingdon Street in the city centre were widened to ease traffic congestion.

1932

The Nottingham City Police force opened the first forensic science laboratory in a provincial police force.

16 May 1932

Nottingham was hit by the worst floods for forty years, traffic at Midland Station was suspended.

21 November 1932

Western Boulevard opened, costing £250,000.

1933

The Ritz Cinema on Angel Row was completed.

6 February 1933

Comedian and television entertainer Leslie Crowther was born in West Bridgford, Nottingham.

28 March 1933

The John Lewis Partnership, which until this point had traded out of its two London based stores, agreed to take over Jessop & Son of Nottingham.

27 April 1933

Nottingham’s Jessop & Son department store was taken over by the John Lewis Partnership to become its first store outside of London.

1 April 1933

The city boundary was extended to include Bilborough and Wollaton, parts of the parishes of Bestwood Park and Colwick, and part Beeston. The population of the city increased by more than 8,000.

10 April 1933

10,000 people welcomed Harold Larwood home from the Australian cricket tour.

27 July 1933

Boots new factory was opened by Lady Trent.

12 July 1934

Freedom of the City was given to J. D. and W. G. Player.

13 October 1934

Gigli, the world famous tenor, appeared at the Albert Hall.

22 November 1934

Nottingham Police laboratories were placed on a national base.

1935

Boots expanded into beauty products and launched its No 7 range of cosmetics.

9 February 1935

Thomas Hammond, Nottingham lace designer and artist, died and was buried at Wilford Church. Thomas won several awards for his lace work and in his spare time he sketched the rapidly changing landscape of Nottingham. Nottingham City Council owns one of the largest collections of his work.

22 February 1935

Paul Robeson sang at Nottingham’s Albert Hall.

27 February 1935

A phone was presented to the Lord Mayor to mark the one millionth installation in the North Midlands.

6 May 1935

King George V Silver Jubilee celebrations took place in Nottingham.

1936

St James’ Church on Standard Hill, Nottingham, was demolished.

6 September 1936

The last journey was made by the old Nottingham trams; Daybrook Square to Carter Gate depot.

5 October 1936

Tollerton Airport extension was approved; an extra 486 acres.

14 December 1936

King George VI was proclaimed in Nottingham’s Market Square.

30 April 1937

Amalgamation took place of six Nottingham pits (Babbington, Bestwood, Bulwell, Cinderhill, Gedling and New London).

13 May 1937

King Geoge VI Coronation celebrations took place; they had been postponed from 12 May due to rain.

29 July 1937

Swimming pools were opened at Bulwell and Carrington.

3 August 1937

The Metropole Cinema opened in Sherwood, Nottingham. It was taken over by the ABC chain in 1943 and closed as a cinema on 27 October 1973.²⁴

4 August 1937

Nottingham’s Tom ‘Torpedo’ Blower swam the English Channel in 13 hours 29 minutes and 24.1 seconds.

18 August 1937

A Civic welcome was held for the English Channel swimmer, Tom Blower.

9 September 1937

Nottingham’s Children’s Library opened.

2 November 1937

The new Labour Exchange was formally opened on Castle Boulevard.

24 November 1937

The James M. Barrie memorial tablet was placed on the old Nottingham Journal office, Pelham Street, Nottingham.

10-14 June 1938

A four day test match between England and Australia packed Nottingham’s Trent Bridge Cricket Ground with spectators.

16 June 1938

The new Wholesale Market opened in Sneinton.

1938

Nottingham’s Art Deco Central Police Station opened on the corner of North Church Street and Shakespeare Street.

14 November 1938

The first mud wrestling was held in Nottingham.

10 April 1939

Nottingham Ice Stadium was officially opened.

1 September 1939

Germany invaded Poland, leading to declarations of war on Germany by the United Kingdom and France.

16 October 1939

The ABC Carlton Cinema, at the corner of Mount Street and Chapel Bar, Nottingham, opened its doors. It could seat over 2,000 and was said by the Nottingham Post to “set a new standard of comfort for cinema patrons”.

1939

The Nottingham Guild of Magicians was founded at the well-known theatrical store ‘The Sign of Four Theatre Shop,’ located on Derby Road. The founding members, all amateurs or professionals enthusiastically looking for a regular place to talk magic, were Cpt Val Jackson, Stonewall Jackson, Bertram Millidge, Rev R. W. Lax West, Maurice Goldworth, G. Harding, Denis Gardner and R. Richardson.

1 February 1940

The City Council agreed to allow cinemas to open on Sundays.

8/9 May 1941

Nottingham’s only major air raid in World War II took place; there were 159 people recorded as killed with 274 injured in this raid and many serious fires, along with quite a number of damaged and destroyed buildings.⁴¹

3 March 1943

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made their one and only visit to the city.

1944

The Ritz Cinema on Angel Row was renamed the Odeon.

1944

Nottingham’s Griffin and Spalding department store was purchased by Debenhams.

16 August 1944

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) founding conference took place at the Black Boy Hotel, Long Row East, Nottingham.

1945

Nottingham and District Technical College was founded, later to become part of Nottingham Trent University.

8 May 1945

Huge crowds gathered in Nottingham’s Old Market Square to celebrate Victory in Europe Day.

2 September 1945

The formal surrender of Japan finally brought the Second World War to an end.

1946

The Nottingham Co-op brought a chapel on George Street, where it founded the Co-operative Arts Theatre.

June 1946

The first Information Bureau office opened in the city.

18 July 1946

Freedom of Entry (the corporate equivalent of Freedom of the City) was conferred on the Sherwood Foresters and the South Nottinghamshire Hussars.

22 November 1946

The Nottingham Panthers professional ice hockey club played their first competitive game.

March 1947

Heavy snowfall, followed by a quick thaw and persistent heavy rain, led to the great Nottingham floods of 1947. The Trent broke its banks at Queens Drive, near the Wilford Power Station and the Clifton Colliery, and the flood waters flowed into the Meadows.

20 August 1948

The University of Nottingham received its University Charter, which permitted it to award its own degrees.

November 1948

Nottingham Playhouse, one of the country’s leading producing theatres, was founded in an old cinema on Goldsmith Street; once the Goldsmith Picture House and later the Little Theatre.

26 June 1949

The start of Nottingham’s Quincentenary Week, celebrating the Charter of 1449.

27 June 1949

The first Performance of ‘The Nottingham Symphony’, by Alan Bush, to celebrate the Quincentenary celebrations of the City. The Nottingham Symphony was commissioned by the Nottingham Co-operative Society and performed at the Albert Hall, Nottingham.

28 June 1949

The Quincentenary visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh took place.

7 November 1949

Su Pollard, the actor, was born in Radford, Nottingham.

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If you want to know more about Nottingham’s past there is further information in ‘Events and dates in Nottingham’s history’ and through these websites:

The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway

The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

Nottingham Local Studies Library

^{24 Cinema Treasures, Website: Metropole Cinema (http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/36924, contributed by Ken Roe)
26 Dyer, Rachel, Nottingham Post, Bygones (Nottingham, Nottingham Post, 20 August 2015) p27
41 Wikipedia, Nottingham Blitz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Blitz)}