IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
The Great Northern Close, NG2 3JL

The new building, which houses a restaurant, is part of the development of The Island Quarter.

This new building has gone up on derelict land next to the Nottingham Canal. It will house two restaurants, one of which will be Cleaver & Wake (see https://www.cleaverandwake.com ). The steps to and from the towpath are being restored and a blue-brick retaining wall built by the Great Northern Railway has been reworked in Derbyshire stone, to match the canal bridge from which this picture was taken. For more about The Island Quarter, try https://www.theislandquarter.com/masterplan and for an idea of what this area was like until quite recently, see Alan Murray-Rust's Image] and my Image] and Image

Derelict land formerly occupied by factories and a long-gone railway is being developed as Nottingham's Island Quarter. For more about it, try https://www.theislandquarter.com/masterplan . This part of the development occupies the site of the former London Road High Level railway station (see Nigel Thompson's Image]). The derelict goods warehouses of the Low Level station, also built by the Great Northern Railway, are in the distance on the right.

The ramps either side of the bridge - spiral to the left, straight to the right - enabled horses to cross where the towpath changed sides. The bridge once led to the shared forecourts of London Road High and Low Level stations. The forecourts' blue-brick retaining wall is on the left. There is now no trace of the High Level station, but the Great Northern's grand terminus, by the Nottingham architect T C Hine, remains and is now a health and fitness club. The winding hole (or turning basin), where narrowboats were turned and the canal bends sharp west under London Road, is behind the camera. The traffic lights and neon street lights are on London Road.

The ramps either side of the bridge enabled horses to cross where the towpath changed sides. The bridge once led to the shared forecourts of London Road High and Low Level stations. The forecourts' blue-brick retaining wall is to the left. There is now no trace of the High Level station, but the Great Northern's grand terminus, straight ahead, a sort of red-brick Loire chateau by the Nottingham architect T C Hine, remains and is now a health and fitness club. Nottingham canalside improvements have spruced up this area no end.

At this point the canal turns at right-angles, so this basin was built to allow narrow boats to negotiate the turn. The photo is taken looking north from the short arm of the canal that runs down to the Trent; the canal turns west here in front of the hotel.

This type of bridge allowed a towing horse to switch to a towpath on the opposite side of the canal without having to be unharnessed. This example also carries a road.

This is where the canal turns south to run parallel to London Road on its way to Meadow Lane Lock and the River Trent. The blue brick abutment on the right once supported a huge girder bridge which carried the Great Northern Railway line. London Road High Level Station was to the left.

The steam coming from the surface is due to the fact that this photograph was taken when the London Road power plant was in operation. This electricity generating station uses heat from the nearby incinerator and the canal water (which is in motion as the canal is in fact a bypass for an unnavigable section of the Trent) as coolant. The water comes out warm, hence the steam.