Description: The architect was Watson Fothergill. It was built for photographer Samuel Bourne. Fothergill Watson (he later changed his name to Watson Fothergill) was one of the leading local architects practising in the Nottingham area from about 1870 to 1906. During these thirty or so years he designed over a hundred buildings including houses, banks, churches, shops and warehouses, many of which still survive today. He worked in the Gothic revival and Old English vernacular styles, very popular in the Victorian times. These styles were loosely based on medieval churches and castles, and 16th & 17th century tudor buildings. Samuel Bourne was born at Mucclestone, Staffordshire in 1834, the son of Thomas (farmer) and Harriet. He came to Nottingham in 1855 to work as an assistant at Moore and Robinson's Bank. An active amateur photographer, in 1859 he participated in the exhibition organised by the Nottingham Photographic Society. He went to India in 1862, spending several years travelling extensively with his camera. He was the first European traveller to photograph the wilder parts of the Himalayan foothills. When he returned to Nottingham, he entered the textile trade and afterwards built a large factory, Britannia Mills, at Netherfield. He married Mary Tolley in 1867. He was a prominent member of High Pavement Unitarian Chapel, and in later years a Magistrate. He was an artist, painting in watercolours, in 1880 being elected as President of the Nottingham Society of Artists. He died in April 1912. (information extracted from 'Pioneers of Photography' by Aaron Scharf, and 'Pioneers of Photography in Nottinghamshire 1841-1910' by Bernard and Pauline Heathcote). This image from Watson Fothergill slide 22377.