Description:
Charlotte Street was demolished to make room for the Grand Central Railway Station (otherwise known as Victoria Station) which opened in May 1901.
The artist is Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. Charlotte Street has now completely disappeared, although its site is marked by the foot bridge leading over the Victoria Station. It was not one of the old streets of the town, and was named after, Queen Charlotte (the wife of George III) who was extremely popular in Nottingham, owing to the sympathy aroused by her persecution (note from Picture the Past: it was actually Queen Caroline, wife of George IV, and not Queen Charlotte who suffered this persecution). It commenced opposite the modern Shakespeare Street, which was anciently called 'Cross Lane', and which was one of the muddiest and foulest lanes of the district. Somewhere in Cross Lane stood the Jews' Gallows, for no self respecting Christian criminal would condescend to be executed upon the same gallows as that which was used to terminate the existence of a Jew. Charlotte Street led through to Glasshouse Street, of which there is little to say, and was not a particularly salubrious thoroughfare, For some reason, it was generally referred to as 'Charlotter Street' which is a curious example of our vernacular. Mr. Hammond's drawing is interesting as a reminder of the time and dress to be seen about the streets of Nottingham a generation ago, and it is astonishing to think, when one looks at this picture, that it is now necessary to have a policeman stationed at the point from which it is drawn to direct and control the traffic. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.