IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
City Link, NOTTINGHAM, NG2 4NG

The Island Quarter development is a multi-project scheme to revitalise a neglected part of the city at the eastern end of the Nottingham Canal. Part of the plans include new student accommodation (for which there seems to be an insatiable demand these days). The tower cranes here are building three tower blocks which will provide 693 student beds; the tallest will have 12 storeys. According to the Island Quarter website, the plans feature 'high-level sky lounges that offer projected views across the city and a pavilion with views onto a private courtyard space that will provide the opportunity for working, socialising, dining and exercising, (as well as) multi-media lounges and co-working spaces...gaming zones and quiet areas for study and relaxation'. It all sounds to be a long way from the halls of residence of old.

Dragon statue next to the Sneinton Hermitage.

This sculpture, at the corner of Manvers Street and Sneinton Hermitage, was unveiled on 21 November 2006. It is the work of a local craftsman, Robert Stubley. The people of Sneinton were asked by the Renewal Trust what they would like to see as a piece of public art to represent their area, and the dragon was the result. According to the Edwardian historian of the Nottingham suburbs Robert Mellors, a monster lived in certain parts of the city, "who has devoured in the first year of their lives a large number of infants, and, what is worse, probably an equal number who have survived have dragged out a pitiable existence in weakness, small in stature, deformed, or anaemic, with diseases, lack of energy, unable to maintain themselves, and therefore dependent on others or the public charge; and, worse still, some have had a natural tendency to vice or crime. Who is this monster, and what is his name? His name is SLUM."

Brickwork on a massive scale in distinctive dark blue engineering bricks. The goods yard itself is long since gone, replaced by housing development.