Pop-up Beeston shop goes electric

The Pop-up Beeston shop

40 Beeston High Road

I did another stint at the Pop-up Beeston Shop yesterday afternoon and enjoyed the company of a steady stream of visitors, including two very special ones, not that I knew this at first — that came later in our conversation...

The extra special visitors turned out to be Steve and Lynn Hallam who own the shop. The other person in the pic, which was taken by Dan Walker of C.P. Walker & Son is me (Robert Howard).

I thanked them for their support and explained what we were trying to do; that it had all happened so quickly, that we were all volunteers, and we hoped the experience gained in their shop would enable us to work with Dan Walker when shops become empty in the future.

Steve Hallam was originally a Beeston lad (he's not related to the town's other Hallams) and his great-grandfather, a baker, Philip Wells Glover, came from Kegworth (follow this link to the Beeston-Notts History website).

Until Steve and Lynn came in none of us knew who the landlord of the old Thornton chocolates shop was or who we had to thank for our good fortune.

Later Steve and Lynn came back with Dan Walker and inside the shop was lit for the first time, which enabled me to take some better photographs. As this pic shows the lights being on even softened this exterior view and made the shop look more inviting. I also found more people came into the shop during the hour or so the lights were on; the whole shop was just so much more inviting.

The shop just looks better as these three pics show…

As I have mentioned in a previous post about the pop-up Beeston shop there is a need for what I call 'PUB commandos, to help us keep the shop open. A mix of 2–3 hour sessions Monday to Saturday covering the hours 10am–4pm will be more than enough. I say this based on previous experience in Lenton helping to run the then Crocus (community) Gallery for three years in a empty shop owned by Nottingham City Council (the flats were going to be demolished together with Church Square, where the empty unit, next to the Crocus (community) Café).

By the end of this week I will have done six sessions. I prefer to stay in the shop waiting for visitors to come in and when they do it is often to ask what is happening to the shop or to share reminiscences. The local historian in me believes the latter is reason enough, together with the We Are Beeston panels. Tomorrow (Saturday) I will take a contact notebook along to the pop-up shop.

Visitors who ask for more information about the shop are being directed by me to the excellent Exploring Beeston's History website, which has a section devoted the High Road and an entry for no.40, which is the pop-up shop. Follow this link.

I have taken the liberty of capturing this image of the shop from the website.

With thanks to the Exploring Beeston's History website

A lady came in last week and said she started worked in the 1950s in Ferrands when she was 15 and clearly remembered her time there with fondness. 

But there is a downside to running a pop-up shop — you need money to pay for electricity and water. That's about it, but in a shop such as this it will not be cheap. Beeston & District Civic Society is going to take the lead, but they will need our help and support.

I see this very much as a community venture drawing in local folk of all ages and by this I mean anyone who lives, works or has an interest in Beeston.

So over to you. What can you do? What would you like to do?

For now contact me via the comments section, but I will change this bit ASAP to a proper contact.

This is an exciting venture — be part of it and share the pleasure.

A Beeston wander to see a bus

It was Susan who suggested yesterday that we go for a walk around Beeston. "Not very far, just far enough to stretch our legs". I happily agreed because I wanted to catch one of the last Trent-Barton 18's, by which I meant take a photograph, so after lunch we set off on our wander.

1. A developer is trying to fit a mini-mansion onto a postage stamp size plot on Bramcote Drive. The present house on the site is being given a makeover; having dormer windows fitted in the roof. The site overlooks the golf course. The front will probably be given over to hard standing. Along the whole length of our wander houses were being extended or having loft extensions.

The announcement at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham of a London Docklands style development corporation for the Toton – East Midlands Airport Corridor must have had housing developers wetting themselves in excitement at the thought of the money to be made over the coming decades. 

I would cancel HS2 in a minute if the decision was mind.

2. I have only included this pic after some thought. This metal gorilla sits in someones garden on Devonshire Avenue, not in full view but its head can be seen from the pavement, so I came to the conclusion that that puts this work of art in the public domain.

3. One of two out of use bus stops on Devonshire Avenue. Who else remembers when Nottingham City Transport's No.14 bus route ran down the road on its way to the city from Chilwell?

4. The war memorial recalls the death of a Beeston soldier who had the misfortune, like so many to die, from sickness. In the 19th century all too many soldiers died before they got to see combat.

5. The reason for our wander. There was another 4 or 5 Trent-Barton route Eighteen buses before the service was withdrawn. It has been taken over by Nottingham Community Transport as their first commercial service. More in a post next week.

5. Broxtowe Borough Council are being very bullish about what is going to happen on the old Beeston Bus Station site. A cinema and shops and flats all 'Opening 2020' if the poster is to be believed. They are going to do all this is just under 15 months? Of course not, but Conservatives do like to make promises they know they can't keep. Let's hope come next May, the Borough Council election sees the Conservatives being replaced by Labour.

6. Inside the old Thornton's chocolate shop which C.P. Walker & Son, the local estate agents, have allow The Beestonian, We Are Beeston and Beeston Civic Society use as a pop-up shop for a couple of weeks. I did four afternoon stints last and will be doing Thursday and Saturday afternoons the coming week. In my book its been a great success and points an exciting way forward for promoting local groups and events. 'Pop-up Beeston' is probably a venture in itself and one that I will actively support.

7. We stopped off for tea and cake at Christine's Delights before walking the last fifteen minutes home. They were full and overflowing onto the pavement outside, which has to be good — and explains why I have used a pic I took within a few days of their opening.

8. And, finally, on Marlborough Road a big 'thank you' to the person responsible for this wonderful Sunflower display!

All in all, a good wander, nothing really happened, but we got some exercise and saw things we had missed fifty times before — like the Sunflowers above!

Pop-up Beeston going well and the perfect lunchtime snack in Beeston

Rosie Lea's Tearoom on Wilkinson Avenue was where I had a quick lunchtime snack today and in my book no one in Beeston does poached eggs better!

It's everything a teashop should be and is one of my Beeston 'go to' eateries. The other is Jo at the Local Not Global Deli on Chilwell Road, where yesterday I had a stilton cheese baguette. The best stilton in the conurbation, only rivalled by Park Stores on the Derby Road, close to The Park Estate entrance. I'm just sorry I didn't take a pic. Next time I will.

Below is a banner about to be made for use with the Pop-up Beeston shop locations. Unless the shop in the former Thornton's chocolate shop continues into next week, this banner will have to wait for its first outing.

Having been there for three afternoons I can say that it has been a great success. I will be there tomorrow (Friday). At the moment we're not sure if the pop-up shop will be open on Saturday. I hope so.

The banner has still to be finalised, small things, but it is coming soon.

How ‘community commandoes’ can help occupy PUBS in our town

The old Thorntons chocolate shop on Beeston High Road is now home to Pop-up Beeston space for the next few days at most.

I've spent the last couple of afternoons is the old Thornton's chocolate shop on Beeston High Road, which has become a 'pop-up' home of sorts for the
'We are Beeston' display panels, plus banners promoting the Blue Plaque guides and my Beeston pubs, cafes and shops map. We've also had copies of the latest Beestonian to give out. I was there this afternoon with Judy Sleeth, the Chair of Beeston and District Civic Society, and Matt Turpin, one of the founders of The Beestonian and progenitor of the 'We are Beeston' project.

An inside view of the old Thornton's chocolate shop.

The focus has been on students, especially new ones, but what I picked up on as well was the number of 'day-trippers' from places like Arnold, Bulwell, Bilborough and Sherwood, some by The Tram, others by the little L11 LocalLink bus; then there were the locals stopping to look at the 'I am Beeston' panels, (one lady exclaiming at the sight of a friend 'I know her!', then me reading out the text to her about her friend, which prompted a laugh and 'Well I never'). Such a simple exchange, but one which amply demonstrates the value of the work being done by Matt and his colleagues, who are driving the wonderful 'We are Beeston' project (there is crossover between 'I am Beeston' and 'We are Beeston').

I will in the o;d Thornton's chocolate shop again tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) and Friday. With luck the pop-up space will still be open for visitors on Saturday between c.11am and 4pm. Beeston's friendly estate agent, C. P. Walker & Son, have been supportive as ever, working with the landlord to provide the shop. 

It is in the nature of 'pop-ups' that they can disappear as quickly as they appear. Judy and Matt deserve our support for their enterprise and commitment. Between them they inspire much of what I do — hence my volunteering at short notice to help out.

What Judy and Matt need is a team of 'community commandos', who can be called upon to volunteer at short notice to look after 'pop-up Beeston' spaces is shops like Thorntons. When the displays have to go, Matt and Judy have no idea where he next 'Pop-up Beeston space' will be — hence the need for what I am calling 'PUB Commandos'! It is the kind of volunteering which suits me perfectly and there must be others like me who have routines — in my case it is doing the chores in the morning, leaving afternoons free to do what I want to do — hence my helping out this week at short notice.

'PUBS' are different to charity shops. They are local, they are topical and they are not fund-raising ventures. Attention grabbing yes, and if they get the Civic Society new members, and adverts for The Beestonian and my next map then that is a bonus.

As for advertising PUB locations, that is for those with Facebook or Twitter like skills. I only blog — which I know limits my ability to communicate with more people.

Someone may just see this blog post and pop along to the old Thornton's shop on Beeston High Road. It's a good display for such short notice and I'm confident they will get better with every PUB event.

in the meantime a big 'thank you' to Judy, Matt and C. P. Walker for what they are doing, and others, like Hairven and Simon at Pixel & Graphics, who are very supportive as well.

Middle Street Resource Centre, its café (oops), Beeston's forward thinkers and remapping our town

Yesterday evening (Monday 6 November) I went along to the annual public meeting of Middle Street Resource Centre and took with me some A1 size copies of my Beeston maps (the first time I'd seen them so large). Simon at Pixels & Graphics on Chilwell Road printed them. Here they are on display in the Centre:

There was quite a bit of interest. One of the maps was 'exclusive' in the sense that it was a blank master, which I have never made public before.

As simple as this looks it is something I would re-build and may well do so. Given the time available to me it may take a few months, but I am tempted to do it so that others can use the map more easily. When I say 'others' I mean in and of the community. Commercial companies wanting to use the map will have to pay a negotiated fee, which I will use to publish my bus maps or short stories.

I deliberately left the detail on the Nottingham University Campus inset map and it was only whilst I was at Middle Street yesterday evening that I realised the Centre had no café icon, so I have added one. Here is the amended section of my map close-up:

My reason for going to the meeting last night was to link up with Resource Centre volunteers involved with the Let's Go 2 Beeston website, which the Centre took over a couple of weeks ago. I met Karen and Colin and look forward to working with them. Councillor Pat Lally encouraged both of them to address the meeting, which they did briefly. They clearly have the vision to take it beyond Beeston High Road and its retail emphasis. Councillor Lally told those present that he thought the website had the potential to do much for the Centre and I'm sure he's right.

Beeston does need a web focus and this could well be it. Anna Soubry and Broxtowe Borough Council both publish forthcoming events, as does the Beeston Express, but not online, and this is one of the points made at yesterday evening's meeting more than once — that a good few folk are not into web and online social media. Bringing the two together is the challenge and partly explains why the Beeston map cover makes a reference to web based media:

The Beeston map as presently designed does not mark hotels or B&Bs, nor nurseries. It has to be about more than attracting shopper, it has to be about attracting visitors to search the town's Blue Plaques, to use Beeston as a holiday base. The town needs to promote its connectivity (which is something my Beeston centred public transport map tries to do) and we should remember 'connectivity' goes more than one way.

Karen and Colin understand this — as do Judy Sleath, Chair of Beeston Civic Society, and Matt Turpin of The Beestonia. For connectivity to be a success this is where it has to begin. With forward thinkers. There are others of that I am sure, but they have to be 'outside the box' by which I mean not naturally of 'The Establishment' in all its manifestations. 

Middle Street offers a good starting point in so many ways. Its users and owner for one and off the community. My blank Beeston map heading challenges viewers to 'See Beeston a little differently' followed by 'What would you put on this map?'

I would actually like to take the exercise back a step and invite Beestonians of all ages, interests, groups to sit down with a sheet of A3 paper and map there own take on Beeston, where they place themselves on the map they create? This exercise tells you a lot about what people like, want and where they spend most of their time. I know this from experience. For 21 years I was a supported housing regional, then national, Housing Management Officer and I would bring staff and tenants together in towns as diverse as Nottingham, Newark, Mansfield (to give you local examples) to create such maps. It really did help us to improve the quality of lives, especially in terms of individual and group support.

It is easy to miss the obvious and it is difficult to know if others are equally as blind as me or are terribly polite (eg. my Middle Resource Centre café slip)? Mapping tells you such things. It is an amazing way of learning I promise you.

And with this thought I will leave you, plus a reminder to visit the Middle Resource Centre café soon!