Nottingham Market Place

The Market Place, with was newly-paved in 1827, occupies a triangular area of about five and a half acres, and has long been admired. Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII, said:

"Both for the buildings on the side of it, for the very great wideness of the streets, and the clean paving of it, it is the fairest, without exception, of all England".

It is now lined with lofty and well built houses, the fronts of which are nearly all projected over the basement storey, and supported by massive pillars, forming long piazzas, under which are retail shops, many of which are elegant and richly stocked.

The range of buildings on the north side is upwards of 400 yards in length, and is called the Long Row. The houses and shops on the south side bear the name of Angel Row, the Beastmarket Hill, the Poultry and Timber Hill, but the latter is now generally called South Parade. At the east end, betwixt the Long Row and the Poultry, is a centre pile of building, the west end of which presents to the Market Place the spacious and elegant front of the Exchange, Behind the Exchange are the Shambles and the Police Office, and two rows of shops and houses, called Cheapside and Smithy Row, in front of the latter of which there is, on Saturdays, a long row of stalls occupied by butchers, chiefly from the country. The cattle and sheep pens are moveable, and are set up in the Market Place on Wednesdays, and in a broad part of Parliament Street on Saturdays, when the whole extensive area of the Market Place is occupied with stalls of provisions, shoes, clothes, hardware, baskets, coopers' ware, furniture, earthenware, glass, books, &c. &c.

Anciently, the Market Place was divided lengthwise by a wall breast high, but it was taken down in 1711, together with the Butter Cross which stood facing the Exchange, and the Malt Cross which stood opposite the end of St James' Street. The latter was rebuilt on a larger scale, and was not finally removed until 1804. The Hen Cross, at the top of the Poultry, and the Weekday Cross, at the south end of Market Street, opposite the Guildhall, were built in 1712, but the former was taken down in 1801, and the latter in 1804, being great obstructions in two public thoroughfares. The market was held on Wednesday at the Weekday Cross, till the year 1800. In 1750, an unsuccessful attempt was made to establish a Monday market in St Peter's Square, where a cross was erected, but it was taken down in 1787.

White's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853

[Last updated 19 June 1997 - Clive Henly]