Where to begin...

(Stills from Alan Stiltoe’s, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning filmed in Radford)

Well first lets catch up.

Im currently working on my final design brief of Architecture year two. By composing this blog, my aim is to order my thoughts and document the evolution of my design and ideas in current and past projects.

I enter this project after the completion of two separate design briefs this year, of which both sites were located in the town of Radford.

Once the heart of Nottingham's industrial life, Illustrious Industrialists, inventors and makers revolutionised the lace industry with the creation of the stocking frame, transforming Nottingham into the centre of the worlds lace trade. John Boot established his pharmaceutical company 'Boots' in Nottingham in 1849, where it stills operates today, and the giants of Raleigh and Player’s cigarettes dominated the city’s landscape.

More recently, Biocity science park in the centre of Nottingham culminates over two centuries of scientific development and invention, from the painkiller Ibuprofen to the MRI scanner.
In fashion, Paul Smith still manufactures his clothes and textiles from a city centre workshop, the original workshop in which he launched his range of clothing.

Much of the industry of Radford, as with the Nottingham area as a whole, was related to the lace industry. The area is dominated by the derelict palaces of large-scale industry that produced textiles, Player's cigarettes and bicycles to name a few.

We will focus our attention on the vast abandoned site of Forest Mill, situated on the Alfreton Road, in the heart of Radford. Established in the early 1800’s, the products of Forest Mills factory were considered of the finest kind, with it's lace thread awarded a gold medal in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

With this legacy of exemplar industrial success, it is no surprise my research project will begin by investigating this unprecedented industrial history.