Prospect Place dates from the era when the Willoughby Street area was first developed in the 1820s and 1830s. However our earliest photographs only go back to the 1960s the period when the original buildings on Prospect Place are being replaced by industrial units. This shot taken in 1963 from Willoughby Street and looking down Prospect Place shows the factory unit for Allen Embroideries under construction in the foreground. See also Embroidering the Past in Lenton Times No.19.

When George Roberts took this shot of the remaining houses on Prospect Place in 1965 it was just before they were going to be pulled down. We do not actually have any photographs of our own showing the old properties on Prospect Place and this particular image is taken from Picture the Past the website of Nottingham Local Studies Library web site.

Click here to be taken to Picture the Past s version of this photograph

This photograph taken in 1982 shows the buildings either side of the junction with Willoughby Street that were erected following the 1960s redevelopment of this particular bit of New Lenton. The building on the left used to house Allen Embroideries referred to earlier.

Moving slightly further along the road and allowing some twenty seven years to pass by this is much the same view in 2009. The building on the left which once housed Cope s the Watchmakers has new occupants and has largely been rebuilt since the previous photograph was taken.

Also taken in 2009 these are the premises that had initially housed P.I.F., which before the redevelopment of the area in the 1960s had started life in a building situated at the corner of Willoughby Street and Church Street. The building in question had originally been the New Inn, one of the first pubs to be built in the New Lenton area in the 1830s but which had closed down in the early twentieth century. Sadly we know of no photographs showing the building when it was a pub.

Shortly before the industrial properties that lined the northern side of Prospect Place were demolished in 2011 Kevin Chamberlain took a number of shots of the buildings. This is one of his photographs focussing on the portion of the building that had once housed P.I.F. s offices.

We are situated at the junction of Prospect Place and Harley Street back in 2009. The area in the foreground would originally have been the carpark for Genristo Ltd. but by this time the business in question would have long ceased operations and for the last few years had stood empty waiting new tenants who never arrived.

Back in 1883 William Bridgett commissioned Watson Fothergill to draw up plans for a new factory building to go at the corner of Harley Street and Prospect Place. This is the location drawing taken from Watson Fothergill's plans showing the site of the new building which would go behind the terrace of properties on Harley Street which were subsequently demolished in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is a copy of the entire plan drawn up by Watson Fothergill in 1883 which includes the location drawing shown in the previous image. The factory building subsequently became part of the Genristo site. If you look closely at the big version of the modern day photograph (which is the first one on this row) you should be able to spot a section of the William Bridgett building lying to the rear of the more modern day extension which fronted on to Prospect Place. This copy of the plan was provided by Jackson Design Associates who are based in Ollerton.

Darren Turner had occasion to take this photograph and the next one in 2006. Taken from Harley Street they show a portion of the building originally designed by Watson Fothergill for William Bridgett.

For his second view of the building Darren has stepped back slightly so you get more of the building's setting from Harley Street.

Issue No.8 of Lenton Times was sponsored by Genristo Ltd. and this particular photograph was taken in 1993 to accompany the sponsor s story that was included in that particular issue of the magazine.

The gates that are clearly evident in the 1993 photograph are still there in this photograph taken in May 2011 by Kevin Chamberlain but as for the rest of the site this has already been demolished.

For our final shot we return to the junction of Prospect Place and Willoughby Street and Kevin Chamberlain s photograph, taken in July 2011, now shows the site largely cleared and awaiting the arrival of a new developer who can create the next phase in Prospect Street s chequered history.