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Lace Market
The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area in the centre of Nottingham, England. It was once the centre of the world's lace industry and was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. It is now designated as a conservation area and accommodates a variety of bars, restaurants and shops. It also hosts the Lace Market Theatre, the National Justice Museum and the Nottingham Contemporary arts centre.
The area is served by Nottingham Express Transit's Lace Market tram stop on Fletcher Gate.
The Lace Market is located on a hill that was the site of the original Saxon settlement of Nottingham. It boasts the oldest Christian foundation in the city, predating the Norman Conquest. St Mary's Church, on High 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.
The Saxon settlement was originally surrounded by a substantial defensive ditch and rampart, which fell out of use following the Norman Conquest and was filled by the time of the Domesday Book (1086). Following the Norman Conquest the Saxon settlement developed into the English borough, which housed a Town Hall and Law Courts. At the same time the French borough developed around the Norman castle on the hill opposite. Eventually the focus of the city became the Old Market Square, situated between the two boroughs, leaving the site of the Saxon settlement to concentrate on the lace industry.
The area's name, and much of its character, derives from it becoming the heart of the world's lace industry during the days of the British Empire. This transformation followed on from the invention of the stocking frame in 1589 by William Lee, who probably came from the nearby village of Calverton. Although Lee emigrated to France, the stocking knitting trade became centred on Nottingham in the mid-18th century, boosted by the supply of yarn from Richard Arkwright's Derwent Valley Mills.
In time, the Nottingham stocking knitters discovered how to adapt their machines to knit lace. The Bobbinet machines were invented in 1808 by John Heathcoat, John Levers adapted this to create the Leavers machine in 1813, and John Livesey adapted it into the curtain machine in 1846. These developments eventually gave the Lace Market its name, although it was never a market in the sense of having stalls, but comprised salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace.
The local hosiery industry employed 25,000 mostly female workers at its peak in the 1890s. The lace would be finished on the top floors of the large Victorian brick-built warehouses, which are recognisable by their large windows, and then displayed in the downstairs showrooms to buyers from the fashion and domestic furnishing businesses.
Like many large British cities, Nottingham was affected by the decline of traditional industries. Lace declined as technology changed and the working population fell below 5,000 in the 1970s with many of the factories becoming derelict and the area falling into decline.
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Lace Market
The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area in the centre of Nottingham, England. It was once the centre of the world's lace industry and was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. It is now designated as a conservation area and accommodates a variety of bars, restaurants and shops. It also hosts the Lace Market Theatre, the National Justice Museum and the Nottingham Contemporary arts centre.
The area is served by Nottingham Express Transit's Lace Market tram stop on Fletcher Gate.
The Lace Market is located on a hill that was the site of the original Saxon settlement of Nottingham. It boasts the oldest Christian foundation in the city, predating the Norman Conquest. St Mary's Church, on High 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.
The Saxon settlement was originally surrounded by a substantial defensive ditch and rampart, which fell out of use following the Norman Conquest and was filled by the time of the Domesday Book (1086). Following the Norman Conquest the Saxon settlement developed into the English borough, which housed a Town Hall and Law Courts. At the same time the French borough developed around the Norman castle on the hill opposite. Eventually the focus of the city became the Old Market Square, situated between the two boroughs, leaving the site of the Saxon settlement to concentrate on the lace industry.
The area's name, and much of its character, derives from it becoming the heart of the world's lace industry during the days of the British Empire. This transformation followed on from the invention of the stocking frame in 1589 by William Lee, who probably came from the nearby village of Calverton. Although Lee emigrated to France, the stocking knitting trade became centred on Nottingham in the mid-18th century, boosted by the supply of yarn from Richard Arkwright's Derwent Valley Mills.
In time, the Nottingham stocking knitters discovered how to adapt their machines to knit lace. The Bobbinet machines were invented in 1808 by John Heathcoat, John Levers adapted this to create the Leavers machine in 1813, and John Livesey adapted it into the curtain machine in 1846. These developments eventually gave the Lace Market its name, although it was never a market in the sense of having stalls, but comprised salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace.
The local hosiery industry employed 25,000 mostly female workers at its peak in the 1890s. The lace would be finished on the top floors of the large Victorian brick-built warehouses, which are recognisable by their large windows, and then displayed in the downstairs showrooms to buyers from the fashion and domestic furnishing businesses.
Like many large British cities, Nottingham was affected by the decline of traditional industries. Lace declined as technology changed and the working population fell below 5,000 in the 1970s with many of the factories becoming derelict and the area falling into decline.
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