Description: 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'. This old building, which has now been replaced by a modern structure, stood at the corner of two interesting streets, Wheeler Gate and Friar Lane. The early name of Wheeler Gate was 'Baxter Gate', and in it were situated the town baxter, or bake houses; while Friar Lane led to the entrance to the Friary of the Carmelites, a portion of which still remains in Friar Yard. The Old Moot Hall Inn which Mr. Hammond shows us in this drawing, with its charming curved gables, was built about the time of the Restoration in the middle of the seventeenth century, and for years was known as the 'Feathers Inn'. Tradition points to the site having been occupied by the Moot Hall of the French moiety of Nottingham, but this is not certain. In the year 1689 a number of the leading men of the neighbourhood met in the 'Feathers Inn' to discuss the political situation and to decide whether they would remain loyal to King James II or transfer their allegiance to William of Orange and his wife Princess Mary. They decided on the latter course and adjourning to the Malt Cross which stood in the Great Market Place near the present site of Queen Victoria's statue, made their declaration which met with general approval. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.