Hyson Green

The first modern house was built in 1802; in 1820, rows of houses were built in Pleasant Row, Lenton Street, Saville Row, Lindsay Street, and Pepper Street by societies of workmen: stocking-makers and warp hands. The houses cost £70 each, and workmen paid for them in instalments. The upper rooms were used as workshops where the residents installed rented stocking frames. These four-storey houses were spacious, with long individual front gardens. They marked a change from the confined courts and yards of New Radford, which were soon to follow. A tea garden and bowling green was made at the Cricket Players public-house, which was established by John Pepper about 1824.[5]

The government of Nottingham was changed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. The Enclosure Act, 1844 freed Nottingham's open fields for building.

The streets were lit with gas in 1869.[5] In 1875, Hyson Green comprised a few streets of houses mainly between the tram lines on Radford Road and the Hyson Green Works, a brass foundry, on Gregory Boulevard.[6] There was open country between the settlement and Scotholme House in New Radford. The terraced frameknitters' houses had generous gardens. In addition to the brass foundry, there was a lace factory, an Anglican church with attached school, and two Methodist chapels. In Bedford Square and Radford Court (both demolished) were groups of back-to-back cottages.[6] The Borough Extension Act 1877 brought Basford, Radford, and thus Hyson Green into Nottingham. A large number of houses were built by J. R. Morrison around 1880. Morrison died in 1886.[5] In 1889 Nottingham became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. City status was awarded as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria, being signified in a letter from the prime minister, the Marquess of Salisbury to the mayor, dated 18 June 1897.

By 1912, Hyson Green was an area of gridiron streets with densely packed, small terraced houses. The generous gardens of the previous generation had been infilled with rows of small cottages.[6] The area had become a classic slum, with high infant mortality and a strong self-supportive community.

The Hyson Green Flats were built in 1965 and demolished in 1988. They were a well-known landmark in their day, and many people enjoyed living in the area due to its strong community spirit.[7] There were 593 individual flats and maisonettes. They had a kitchen, separate bathroom and toilet, and communal underfloor central heating.[8]

Councillor Marcia Watson reminisced:

High rise was popular then. People weren’t fussy back then. The view was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I loved it…for me, moving in and living there, it was the first home of my own.[9][10]

Nottingham City Council had built these high-rise and deck-access developments using major contractors, notably Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow, who built in off-the-peg schemes. The flats were accessed along 31 high-level walkways. There were defects in these estates, and legislative and economic changes disproportionately afflicted the communities living in council-rented accommodation. There was dissatisfaction with the council as landlord in this period and its repair schedules. By 1981, renting a council house was less than aspirational.[9]

In 1981, there were serious riots across many major cities in England, including Nottingham, on the weekend of 10–12 July. The main motives for the riots were related to racial tension and inner-city deprivation, together with a distrust of the police and 'authority' in general. The riots started on the Friday night on Radford Road in response to a significant build-up of police presence, and moved to the flats in the early hours of Saturday morning. On the Saturday night the riots moved to the city centre when racists from outside the town had attacked blacks under the cover of the riots. The fighting began as a confrontation with the police using stones and petrol bombs, with shop windows only being broken 'accidentally', but looting occurred later; the rioters were always of mixed races and ages, employed and unemployed. Petrol bombs were made and thrown, but an early attempt to torch the flats was successfully resisted by the residents. Over 100 people were arrested by the police, but only one man was charged.[11]

Prince Charles visited Hyson Green Flats in 1982, during a fact-finding tour of Britain's inner cities. 'He had minimum security as he visited the walkways and drank tea and talked with the residents. He left in a yellow helicopter', resident Mark Watson remembers.[12]

The cleared area was used for an Asda superstore and low-rise, lower-density housing.[7]