Nottingham City Centre 1985
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ม.ค. 2025
- An extract from video I shot in December 1985, just before Christmas of that year. The video shows the city centre at that time including shots of Market Square, the Council House as well as the castle and both the Victoria and Broadmarsh Shopping Centres.
Also see my video of roughly the same locations but in 1972 and 1986.
Link 1972: • Nottingham City Centre...
Link 1986: • Nottingham City Centre...
Also in my channel 'bonearrowgroup'
This is AMAZING!! I was a Goth back in 85. So many memories flooding in.
Im struck by how many people are shopping, and how much stuff the shops have for sale. Lets go back to those times, when the pre Christmas high street buzzed, BEFORE black Friday and before the internet ruined it all. Im so glad im old enough to remember these times. Thank you to whoever filmed this. Wonderful. :D
Glad you liked my video. I had not long bought the video camera so wasn't used to it, I would have shot a lot more film if I knew it was going to this popular!
Born in Nottingham in the mid 70s so all this has brought back some great childhood memories. The Leyland buses, food court, even Broad Marsh used to be busy. And the council used to spend money on proper xmas decorations! How times have changed. A great decade to be a kid.
I was born and raised in Nottingham at the same time. I agree, it was a great place to be a kid. I recall fantastic Christmas decorations vividly, it made for a great atmosphere and I have such fond memories. I almost dare not go back, this video is how I remember Nottingham. The council let my old church crumble to the ground since I emigrated, I can't imagine what they've done to the rest of the place...
Thankyou to whoever took this film and posted it - I was astonished to suddenly see myself as a 28 year old striding across the screen at around 2.47 - completely by chance. I may be being nostalgic, but the city at xmas seemed so much more atmospheric back then. Cheers for the lovely memories
That's great you were able to see yourself :) I shot this video little did I realise how popular it would become years later. I only did it to test out a new video camera I'd bought..
@@bonearrowgroup how much were video cameras back then? I imagine they cost a lot in today's money. Quality is good. Of course they would be popular - everyone loves nostalgia!
Wow . I would’ve been 11 if I seen myself . Was that you at the lions 😂😂
@@tonys6237
in 1986
Panasonic camcorder was £599
my wage was £101 for 40hrs
at WHSmith lol
@@winniepeg2020 £1100 the guy who filmed this paid, about 3k today.....
Thanks for this, I loved living in Nottingham in the 80s and 90s, just the greatest place you could be if you were a fan of Rock music. Back then it was wall-to-wall clubs and bars, heaps of fun people and great music. Miss the place it was.
Yeah rock city, the garage, jayce's plus loads of good pubs.. good times indeed 👍🏼✨
Best concerts you saw?
You'd never see Victoria Centre or Broadmarsh that busy now. Fascinating look.
broadmarsh knocked down 😰
Thank you for posting this, what a trip down memory lane... I grew up in Nottingham, Colwick specifically, but spent nearly every weekend in the city center. I emigrated to Canada when I was 18 in 1990 and this footage shows home as I last remember it. I haven't been back to visit since so this footage feels like it was just yesterday to me. As teenagers we'd always walk back and forth between Vicky centre and Broadmarsh, stopping at the square on the way. The square had 4 fountain pools back in my day. The shops are all of the shops that I remember vividly, it's like walking back in time. I had a fantastic childhood living in Nottingham, this tugs at the heartstrings, thanks for sharing.
@BrackynMor So I've heard, apparently things have changed so much. I'm grateful for the nostalgia! Do you live in Nottingham?
Lovely comment. I did not grow up in Nottingham but went to university in Leicester in 1988 and have a high regard for the city 30 miles from Nottingham. I have only visited Nottingham twice but thought it was vibrant on both occasions, the first in 1987 and the second around 1996.
Nottingham has massively changed. You would probably not recognise much if you haven’t been since 1990. Broadmarsh was knocked down few years back after the Nottingham city council had plans to renovate the entire thing but went bankrupt in the process. No more broadmarsh, no bus stops on the main road outside, no main road outside broadmarsh. So much has changed. I recommend going on google earth and having a look.
I can remember Nottingham City centre well. I was only about eight years old at the time, living in Bulwell. Me and my mates used to catch the bus (81?) into the city centre and hang around the castle.
I also remember Old Market Square with the fountains, Odeon Cinema. I remember going around Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh Shopping centre with my mum. We could never afford to go to Mcdonalds or Wimpy at the time or buy anything from the nice shops, we were living on the breadline and very poor.
Despite that, there was some good memories and I worked my way out of the poverty trap we were in.
I was born in the early 2000s and as a kid I remember my dad taking me through broadmarsh to wimpy and to the airfix shop upstairs. I remember the bus stops on the main road outside broadmarsh and the bridge going over the road from the shopping center to the carpark. It makes me very upset to watch this video as I wish I was born earlier and I don’t feel like I should be born in the decade I was. You would never EVER see Nottingham as busy today as it was in the 80s. It has it drastically changed over the years and me being in my early 20s I still go out into town every weekend on the piss but it’s very unfortunate nowadays as you can’t go out without worrying about being stabbed. It send shivers down my spine seeing the inside footage of broadmarsh and Victoria center. I bet it was a blast to be alive back then. You guys truly did have it good!
Man, I love video's like this, I was born in 1982 and I've lived in Nottingham all my life, it just fills me with nostalgia to see this. Even though I was a kid I do remember Nottingham like this.
In Broadmarsh there used to be a toy shop where I got my He-man figures, good times! (would of like to of seen that shop, and the wooden frog that used to be outside Wimpy on the top floor, lol)
And the wooden caterpillar too!
David Bent got my he man figures from same shop as you
@@ibby.hussain_ I think we all did, the city was an awesome place back then...Sadly Broardmarsh is a shadow of it's former self :-(
@@reallybrokenalways Broadmarsh looks terrible at the moment. I hope the renovations are worth it but somehow I don't think they will be.
Was it Zodiac Toys?
Ah the era before Internet shopping high parking charges and bus fares. ..Days gone never to return 😢
Really enjoyed. Thanks so much for posting-born in Nottingham 1982-this was my childhood.
1981 here :)
Lol Nottingham born me 1983
This is when the market square with its fountains and lovely stonework actually matched the council house.Unlike now where the market square looks like some tacky joke patio you would buy from wickes or B&Q. who an earth let that go ahead!!!!
Totally agree
Lived in Nottingham from '59 to '64 - in those days Victoria was still a working station - and again for 5 years in the mid-70s. My happiest days... I still enjoy the city when I go back, but it sure has changed!
My god there really WAS a giant Santa in Broadmarsh! For years I've been having this flashback memory of seeing a giant Santa inside the main entrance of Broadmarsh but my mother always told me I was mistake, that there never was one and boom, you caught it on camera. Thank you for helping a 40 year old Nottingham born man feel a little less crazy :D
Also, I remember those bouncing things in the window at Christmas time :D
looks better than it does now!
I thought that watching this just now :)
That's because in the pre-internet era, people used to have to go to the shops in town to buy things.
100% agree much better
@@richardhough3265 This was shot just a few years before I emigrated to Canada. I haven't been back to see the changes, maybe I'll just hold onto my nostalgic memories!
Memories
I'll never forgot the big co-op
Thank you for a great trip down memory lane. I went to Clarendon College in the 1970s and have fond memories of the town. We lived in Wollaton near the park. Emigrated in the 80s to the US so its wonderful to see this video. Thank you.
born in Clifton October 1958,sad to see all the familys,when you think of the babies in the video will be over 30 years old now and the parents pensioners,how time flys,a much better place back then and beyond,
Yeah i'm 35 now would of been 8 months old when this was shot crazy thinking of it
Hi Kym I was born 1951 also lived at Clifton. Dungannon road ,then summer wood lane.loved it .Nottingham was the best town for being young .left 1968 as dad.had new job.at atherstone warks ,was a shock as place was 1 street of terrible shops but people lovely .its really nice now .happy memories.
Thanks for this great video of Nottingham back in the seventies. It bought back a lot of lovely memories and lots of nostalgia. Nottingham was so alive back then with all those lovely shops.❤
Thanks for posting.I was 20 when this was shot and practically lived here it seemed so magical.Later I actually did live at 9-11 st James street just off the square.I havent visited the city for years now.Its souless and has lost any appeal it once had.😢
I was 21 and in my prime in 1985.. Bloody look at me now.. Lol. 🇬🇧
wonders how many Nottingham folk stopped going to visit the castle when they started to charge to enter?
Fantastic video.
I used to go to Nottingham as a young teenager, to buy records (Arcade records), and breakdance/BBoy !
The city council have turned Nottingham into a dump. Upper Parliament Street is basically an open air bus station. Trinity Square has no character. Some of the building development should never been allowed planning permission approval. Its now a student city with fast food everywhere. There is hardly any visible signs of police these days. The scum of the county seem converge to the market place in the summer when the council decide to turn the market place into a seaside resort. Its pathetic. Local government have destroyed Nottingham in the last forty years!
Sadly, the local council were slowly turning Nottingham into a dump from the 60's onwards. Maid marian way cut the city centre in half destroying lots of old buildings, destruction of narrow marsh and drury hill, demolition of the Black boy inn (which would have been a listed building now). Oh yes, the council have made a pigs arse out of nottingham in the name of progress and I'd wager more than a few backhanders....no one will be able to prove the latter though.
Spent one semester as an exchange student (well, maybe I'm part of the
"student city" problem :) in Nottingham and I dig the old footage. But
boy, coming from the former Eastern block I thought commies had a
monopoly on concrete eyesores, however it seems even good old Blighty
had to go through a period of unprecedent barbarism in the 60's and
70's. It's as if Satan himself shat grey monstrosities like Victoria
Centre or Hotel Britannia from the sky, right in the middle of what used
to be a beautiful city, laying waste to priceless pieces of heritage in
the name of...well, I don't even know of what. Money? Functionalism?
Progress? May all the commie city planners, shameless developers, corrupt
officials and beauty defilers everywhere rot in the deepest recesses of hell, which
should be, for good measures, concreted over - same thing they did to
all of our cities in Europe, sometimes more, sometimes less. Still,
Nottingham was a great place, architectural atrocities aside. I'll
harbour fond memories of it till the day I die - such great people the
English, Nottingham folk especially! Sorry for the rant everyone, have a
great day wherever you may be! Greetings from the Czech Republic.
must be really shit where u are
Trudo1651 the knife/gun crime is mad as well
Very atmospheric. I kept expecting to see a younger version of myself at any time, but it never happened. Nottingham city centre - and most other cities - is just a shadow of what it was like in these days.
Wow, this bought back so many memories.
This video just gave me a whole new amount of respect for my home town thank you
Great to see. This was taken on my last Christmas in Nottingham UK before emigrating to Oz in Aug 1986. I caught the quick pass of the Amstrad PCW8512 with twin discs in the window of one of the shops. No mobile Phones, only CRT TV's so much has changed. CD's & Players were just coming in to fashion.
I emigrated in Aug '86 as well. I wonder if we were on the same flights! I never had an Amstrad. Started with a Sinclair ZX80 and then the Spectrum.
John Denton I think it was BAxxx 27-8-86 to Singapore had 3 days then on to Melbourne. It was exactly the same date as we had left Oz in 1976 after a 2 yr contract over here. Pure coincidence.
We came via Singapore too and had a few days there. Amazing. But we flew Singapore airlines and arrived in Melbourne on the 24th August. It was cold and raining and our Greek taxi driver didn't speaka da well da inglish!
John Denton Must be something to do with a mass exodus of Ex CTL folks. So must have been in Singapore at same time. I think it was Singapore Airlines after all. Have been back 4 times with BA so I could get free side trip to Warsaw. .
I remember the food court in Vicky centre and the springy toys in the front window of that shop in broad marsh ( can't remember the shop name)I pestered my mum for one of those toys for Christmas that year!!
The food court was amazing, why they thought removing it was a good idea....About 8 years ago during the renovations they had removed some of the ceiling panels down near there and the original paint and decor was on show! I see they have built a new food court upstairs now.
That Shop was called 'Situals' loved it there too as a kid..
This is quite incredible. I was 9 and a fresh-faced Fernwood Juniors kid at the time but so much of it is familiar. I even said to my wife as you hit the top of the Broadmarsh escalator Tandy on the right and then it panned round and there it was. I'd forgotten Dixons where The Works is and, oh so many, other things that caught the eye. The food court. Proper traffic in OMS. As an ex-pat (Seattle) nottingham boy this brought a tear to the eye. Wonderful.
Bamir2 Always wanted to visit Seattle, can i kip at yours lol
Also went to Fernwood juniors. That's changed a lot now too.😓
Fantastic footage
Thanks for this. Glad you included the Broadmarsh Centre in this. I remember running back through it from the Vicky Centre to get the number 6 Barton bus to Keyworth. How times have changed and a lot of the shops no longer in business. They seem to pop up here in Spain though. We have a C&A here now. Just down the way from the Marks & Sparks in the video, I remember the Xylophone Man playing outside the C&A in the 80s/90s. I recently visited the Vicky Centre and was horrified to see they'd painted that novelty clock white and changed the tune. Can anyone else remember it playing a different tune in the style of a harpsichord?
Christopher Russell Goodall the amount of times we ran they broad marsh to catch the train home !!
I mean through broad marsh
I remember that food court. Never any free tables to eat my food. Table hoggers! My dad took me to Tandy for my Xmas pressure. Had to take it back in the new year as it wouldn't work. A little keyboard learn to play 😯I loved Argos with my Aunty Joyce in Broadmarsh. Lots of good memories but now many demolished 😢
Really enjoyed this, I bet the camera was about the size of a small suitcase. 👍🏼
Not one person on a mobile phone. Heaven..
This is the month I was born! Doesn't look THAT much different to today, really. There was more traffic on city centre streets then such as Parliament Street before restrictions were put in place. Seems strange to see Broadmarsh thriving. Nottingham was a real retail force and punched well above its weight. Even as late as the 2000s it was ranked as high as 3rd in the UK retail rankings, behind only London and Glasgow.
Then sadly, the city centre stagnated while other major cities powered on. It's still very respectable for shopping, but doesn't quite have the offer it used to in relative terms.
Oh My, I remember this all so well. How it has all changed. Didn't realise we had had a McDonalds for so long!!
not one person on a fucking mobile phone..great times had in notts.
Brilliant video,brought back so many memories for me.
Young man then, happy and positive, fit as a fiddle, manageable mortgage and a wife and two lovely children. Millions like me. Then along came Tony Blair and the rest is history.
Great vid well done for hangin on to it for so long some good memories of how things used to be
Aaah! 'Dossing in the Square' was a popular pastime in those days. Hot sunny afternoons on the grass squares by the fountains taking turns to go to Littlewoods to get cheap cans of beer!
I had long hair in 85 and Littlewoods would through you out for that.wankers.
Remarkable how similar it is 30 years later.
5:55 Mogs Morgan on saxophone outside M&S. Still busking to this day.
Can anyone remember the guy selling the Evening Post in Market Square in the late 70’s, early 80’s at around 5:30PM who you’d hear shout “Pa- , Pa-, Pa Pa POST!” All these years later, I still hear him in my head.
brilliant video 😎
I was living there from 1984-86
on wood borough rd
Imagine trying a similar exercise nowadays: before long you'd be approached by a burley security guard(s), store managers and community support officers .. and before long charged with being a terrorist or filming kids in public! Yet with the onset of new technology surely in this PC age we must be able to capture the mood & times of the 2010s so that we look back in the 2040s with such nostalgia! Excellent video - well done.
The best of times.
Love all that tat in the electrical shops that you can find in any skip these days. Some great shots showing how Nottingham's changed over the years. I like the shots of St. Peter's gate before they put that statue there that looks like a kn..... Great vid!
Wow, I moved to Nottingham in 1991 ans it was quite similar to this, although never realised that there was ever a Dixons IN Broad Marsh shopping centre. Great seeing the old Tandy and Co-Op there :-)
Wow how different Nottingham looked then. Destroyed Notts removing broodmarsh shopping centre.
All my memories are flooding back. All i need to see in hockley back in the day. Notts today is a shadow of it`s forma self.
Nice to see cars moving around as its just gridlocked now!
that was wonderful, i wasnt born until 3 months later but still great, i love people like you
Hi... Paul Robey here from Notts TV. Just wondering if we could use some of this video footage on my new Notts Nostalgia show Sunday afternoons 12-3pm? Very happy to give you an on-screen credit.
I think you used to be on Leicester Sound unless I am mistaken. I listened to it from 1988 to 1991 and then 1992-1993 when I returned after a year away. I cannot remember when the station changed its name to Sound FM unless I have got both the wrong way around and/ or hopelessly wrong. It was a great station punching above its weight. Granville House was a lovely building. I remember David Lloyd and it is great to see how well he has done in the radio industry since. His website and the care taken to curate radio history is first class. I also used to listen to Kenny Hague, Guy Morris and Mark Hayman. I think he went on to work for BBC Radio Leicester and then made the switch to television. Not forgetting the inestimable Franklyn Hughes who did a shared programme with Trent at night. Good days and a great city which I owe a lot.
Back in the day Nottingham was buzzing. Not now though something has been lost.😒
this is too good, thankyou for sharing this. you have made my day. originally from Nottingham, stuck in London ")
The buses looked lovely back then, not plastered in advertising.
Back when people engaged with each other and werent just staring at there phones blankly.
Was the saxophonist the same now much older one that plays?
8:33 Green neon sign. "PizzaLand". Whatever happened to PizzaLand? I remember around this time there was always a young woman doing amazing pavement art in the pedestrian area leading up to the Broad Marsh Centre, even when it was freezing cold. I always worried about her poor joints in old age.
She used to sell the evening post too,think she's sadly passed away,name mightve been sally
Sally Freeman
And now look at the Broadmarsh. Outdated and realistically only useful for poundworld and the bus station.
It will be flattened soon - replaced by shiny new shops on the old bus station site. Always looked hideous, even when it was new. The poor relation to the Vic Centre - which has the advantage of being in a much better location.
Simpler..less troubled times...thank you
Indeed...... except for miners' strikes, football hooliganism & the Poll Tax.
@@SiddoNotts And the riots in 1981.
I so miss the old buses!! Why do they have to change things :(. It's really sad that it's all now gone.
Good Old memories, i was only 3 then good to see how things were then.
Likewise. Born 82? My parents are I moved to Nigeria in Africa the following year for a couple of years. I remember Notts like this though, even if we were so young.
if only this was in focus......
Madness! The guy busking on sax still pops round the midlands now!
is that mogs? wondered if it woz
Indeed it is him. I met him in the pub a while ago and told him loads of peeps commented on him and he had quite a big fanbase. He seemed to take it all in his stride.. :)
bonearrowgroup ha u can't recognise him... I was reading he has teeth problems which mean he could stop playing..
@@michaelsnow7252 he's still playing along to his backing track.
Thought it was Mogs...what a legend!
Oh my god this has got the food court on it used to go there so much
Nice video,...not a Chav in sight,..ahh,they were the days lol.My dad had a video camera around this time too,..huge thing,mustve been quite a weight to carry round town
Isn't the sax guy at 6:00 still knocking about
That's the Food Hall that used to be at the back, roughly to the left of where Tescos now is.
As soon as the victoria centre was opened, the council put those jaundiced yellow lines each side of mansfeild road to generate parking fines, all the shops were screwed good and proper, if i go to the music shop i have to pay to park, if i go to the music shop on alfreton road....its free, we have become victims of an organisation thats supposed serve and look after us, all they care about is their bloody massive pensions and salaries.
Love this amazing vid.i was one at the time
Amazing. So many of them shops gone forever.
thanks for the video and Regards
I am not rascist or against migration but forced mass migration and multi culturalism isn’t working,cultures are different by definition..there is plenty of diversity within our own culture
Nonsense.
i left this in 1990 - this sounds like yesterday to me - much different that Notts of today
Born 1983 Nottingham here ;-)
I loved this city around this time - nothing like this now. Souless and empty mainly - sad!
Thank you
Oh this is great I was 13 and in town all the time at Christmas. Do you happen to know what date in December 1985 this was filmed? Thanks!
God, looking back fro. 2021,were we now live in a police state with no freedoms and rights. How bloody wonderful was the 80s and 90s🤔.....no internet, no cameras watching our every move.
Looks like Marks is the only place still there today!
0:31 this still image perfectly encapsulates British town planning and architecture. A beautiful Medieval building (which will be used in all the promotional bumph to celebrate the city) and then vile 1960's prefab asbestos ridden monstrosities next door. Only we British spit on our heritage like this. that house on the left is older than the United States ffs.
Hey! I used to doss in the square around this time too! After a pint or two in the Sal...Let's see how many ex-dossers we can find........
Omg it's like it was yesterday :-)
Wow I was born in 1981 born in Nottingham
What punters in broadmarsh! Food court in Victoria centre and john Lewis know by the name my italian farther in law still calls it today jeeesops those where the days :-)
It'll always be Jessops to us older Nottnum folk!
Remember the restaurant in jessops when you queued and shown to a table.x
Would you mind if I used some of this footage for my student doc? I'll credit you and all that
Sure no problem :)
Wondering if anyone remembers the Snooker club?
Did you notice that most people were speaking English back then too, not Hindi, Arabic, Polish, Turkish etc.....arr those were the days lol
+Mustaine really funny coming from someone whos youtube name sounds like an arabs
I grew up in Nottingham in the late 70s and early 80s and my two best friends at primary school were a sikh and a muslim. You have a selective memory.
+Ben Cousins Selective how ?
Offensive comment. Britain is better for multiculturalism and it was already multicultural in the eighties. Long may it continue to be.
@@eightiesmusic1984 7 years later you are correct 🥱
I was 4 when this come out 😂
Awesome video. Nottingham hasn't changed that much actually... heh? :)
i was 19 then,living in Vic centre flats.
Memories :)
Ahhh so it was after 1985 that the giant penis statue was put in St Peter's Square. I miss the lincoln green and cream livery of the buses (dont like the circus colours they paint them in now) I also miss the Christmas decorations on the bridge from Vic Centre. You never know, maybe I was in town when this was recorded! Thanks for uploading.
Would of been my first xmas
My first year of boozing in Nottingham
Interesting...
what the hell cost 799 quid @3.02 in 1985?
Well I can tell you the video camera I shot this movie with cost me £1100 back in 1985 :) It was a Sony V8 and was the first one that used the 8mm format.
bonearrowgroup bloody hell, I looked on and inflation calculator, £799 is £2300 in today's money!
Slightly less shit than it is now.