The Lace Market

Things to do within the Lace Market

In a hurry?  Do a quick search on things to do within the Lace Market by clicking on the following link - Things to do - The Lace Market.

Nottingham’s Lace Market quarter - becoming a legendary destination in the UK for nightlife

The Pitcher and Piano on High Pavement acts as the starting point to the stylish bars and restaurants that can be found in the labyrinth of streets behind it. Check out the Living Room as you head into the area and bars such as Bluu and Sugar further on.

Hockley lies next to the Lace Market on its north side. The main drags here are along Broad Street and Carlton Street and Goose Gate. Check out the independent cinema and a rather good bar at the Broadway.  Alternatively, head to Muse or Bar Eleven - you'll be sure to have a good time.

Click on the following link to see further details of food and drink venues within the Lace Market – Food & Drink.

The History of The Lace Market and Nottingham Lace

Lacemaking is one of the key aspects of the history of Nottingham, and a quarter-mile square area in the heart of the city contains one of the enduring signs of the impact lace has had upon the area.

It was officially named "The Lace Market" in 1847.

Once the heart of the world's lace industry during the days of the British Empire, it is full of impressive examples of 19th century industrial architecture and thus is a protected heritage area. It was never a market in the sense of having stalls, but there were salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace.

The first "stocking machine" was invented by William Lee in Nottingham in 1685, which further developed into a "warp frame" or "stocking frame" in the 1700s, but the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution left their mark on Nottingham too. Even then, it was known as a centre of fine lace making. As many as 120,000 people and their families made their living by creating stockings and bobbin lace from cotton thread in their homes, fuelled by the cotton mill built in the village of Hockley by Richard Arkwright in 1770.

Lace making reached true efficiency when John Leavers invented what came to be known as the "Leavers machine" in 1814. These machines, first powered by teams of men, then by steam, gradually replaced the hand-powered frames. The factories employed predominantly male factory workers known as "twisthands", who operated the 20-ton machines and kept them lubricated with graphite ("black lead") and oil.

By 1865, there were one hundred and thirty lace factories, with nearly as many supporting industries, and the population of Nottingham had quintupled over the previous century. At about the same time, during Queen Victoria's mourning for Prince Albert, a fashion for black lace swept the country.

Throughout the early 1900s, Nottingham dominated the machine-made lace industry, with nearly all of the machine lace in the United Kingdom being produced, finished, processed or shipped through one or another of the city's lace businesses. Nearly every passenger ship that travelled across the Atlantic in those decades carried a cargo of Nottingham lace (including the Titanic).

The majority of The Lace Market is typical Victorian, with densely packed 4-7 story red brick building lined streets. Iron railings, old gas lamps and red phone boxes a plenty help give you a sense of going back in time to Victorian England.  The Adams Building (now part of the City campus of New College Nottingham) was designed by Thomas Chambers Hine and was built for Thomas Adams, a notable Quaker who did much to reform the working conditions for the ladies in his factory, providing indoor toilets, a tea room, and a sick fund.

There are some non Victorian parts to the area as well though, such as High Pavement which is a handsome Georgian street and home to the Galleries of Justice and St Mary's Church.  The Galleries are located in the old law courts and County Gaol (jail) - or County Goal as the stonemason accidentally inscribed it, a blunder still visible today above the entrance which ironically probably got the poor stonemason severely punished. There has been a court on the site since 1375, with the present Georgian building being used since 1780.

The area is sited on the area of the original Saxon settlement that became Nottingham, and also boasts the oldest Christian Foundation in the city, predating the Norman conquest.  St Mary's Church, on Low Pavement is believed to be the third church to have stood there but was itself completed in 1474 and is an excellent example of early English Perpendicular architecture.

Another fine piece of architecture in the area is a warehouse designed by Watson Fothergill, a prolific local architect responsible for some 100 buildings in the area between 1870 to 1906. His work in the Gothic revival and Old English vernacular styles was very popular in Victorian times, and means that many shops, banks, houses and even churches are enlivened by turrets, gargoyles, mock Tudor beams and other distinctive features.

The Lace Market adjoins the "Hockley Village" area of the city, and between them they offer many choices of excellent Nottingham nightlife, ideal for both stag and hen parties, with the area accommodating many fashionable pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, the Lace Market Theatre, along with the Capital FM Arena Nottingham (Nottingham Arena), providing the East Midlands with a top quality indoor sports, entertainment and conference venue right in the heart of the  Lace Market.

Fancy a Guided Tour of the Lace Market?

Want to discover more about the Lace Market?  Then why not take one of our many guided tours around the area and learn all about the history of the area from the experts?

Click on the following link to see further details of our Lace Market, Guided Tours.