Description:
Looking north from Mechanics Institute.
Mansfield Road used to be called the 'Way to York', and the summit where St Andrew's Church now stands was said by the old stage-coachmen to be the most bitter and exposed point of their long run. On this summit, close to the present entrance to the Church Cemetery, was the gallows of the town, and along Mansfield Road the wretched criminals condemned by the terrible laws of the time were conducted to execution. The district was called 'Gallows Hill', but rather more than a hundred years ago its name was changed to 'Mars Hill' out of deference to the wishes of the local inhabitants.
On the left of Mr Hammond's picture we have a portion of the facade of the Mechanics Institute. This was built in 1845 on the site of a hamlet called 'Burton Leys', whose name is reflected in the modern 'Burton Street'. On the opposite side of the road is the opening into Charlotte Street, a thoroughfare completely cleared away in constructing the Victoria Station. Milton Street from the end of which this picture is drawn was formerly called 'Boot Lane', and the lower part of Mansfield Road between Charlotte Street and Woodborough Road was known as 'Melbourne Street'.
Descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.
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'.