Beeston Vertical Map update — a new Café, a name change and coming soon

A quick post. For the next month or more my priority is caring for Susan after her operation, so my posts will remain few, but I have picked up on some changes in the last week or so, so I have updated my Beeston map and here are pics of the changes:

The closed Odin Cafe has become Christine's Delights. The frontage has still to get signage, so there is an A-board on Beeston High Road outside the cafe.

It describes itself as a 'mediterranean style bakery' and what food I have bought from the cafe to take home for a light lunch has been tasty and the pastry crunchy. Early days yet. I wish them well.

The Dessert Haven 'opening soon' poster has been in the shop window across from The Coffee House for a few weeks now.

And lastly The Greyhound has morphed in The Jesse Boot with signage which describes the pub as a 'Craft Union Free House'.

I admit to not being a pubby person these days, but the makeover makes the building look like a bastion of sorts. A place of dark secrets.

Its new owners, the Craft Union Pub Company describe The Jesse Boot as a 'community pub'. I'm sure it's friendly inside. In the four years I have been doing this map there have been a number of re-namings (or is it re-brandings?). Sometimes the owners have remained the same. I still think of The Coffee House as Mason and Mason and The Rye as Jerome & Kern (I never could get the name right, but it reminded me of the songwriter). Then there is The Lounge Bar named after a local Boxer. I know the signage says Bendigo but I don't call it that.

I suspect a good few of us have our own names for places. I can see a map coming on...

Ten days with a sting in the tail, more Relish, plus a 'Home from home' on the High Road and a Tram epitaph from someone who should know!

My chest infection persists, so I have yet to venture out on my own, and the only two occasions (Friday and Sunday just gone) so far have been to accompany Susan to the City Hospital's Breast Institute. Close friends went with her on Wednesday because I was still too poorly and on medication.

10 days ago Susan's visit to The Ropewalk for a mammogram was 'routine', except by Saturday just gone we knew there was nothing routine about it. Susan had breast cancer again, the last time being in 2006. The worst part of the process is the days of not knowing. You go 'with the flow'. It is what it is.

Over the next couple of weeks at least we have two more hospital visits, then Susan will get a date for the operation, which will be 'before Christmas' — that quick. Susan feels fine in herself — a bit like I did with my lungs and heart. No symptoms, no discomfort — just a life-threatening physical condition if left untreated.

In the real world I had another Henderson's Relish moment the week before last in Skipton, where we went on a day out to collect a small table we had bought on e-bay. It was a glorious day and enjoyable. Where we are today not even a speck of dust on the horizon.

I asked the waitress in the Skipton fish & chip restaurant we were in (Bizzie Lizzie's) if they had any Worcester Sauce or Henderson's Relish. She said 'no' to the former, but 'yes' to the Relish, adding 'We use in the kitchen to make chilli. No one's ever asked me before' and here we were in Yorkshire — the home of Henderson's Relish.

The one thing I have never quite got about fish and chips north of London (even though work took me to Birmingham in 1969, then Mansfield in 1975) is how the choice of fish is limited to cod (or haddock if you're lucky). No plaice or rock salmon (dogfish). The highlight of our all too rare visits to my sister in Hastings are paddles in the sea and battered rock salmon, mushy peas and chips. I buy it very occasionally when I see it in Hallam's. You will never taste a sweeter fish.

The view from our table in Bizzie Lizzie's. Skipton is a 150 minute drive including a 30 minute break about half-way.

Our destination. A small plant nursery on the side of a hill overlooking Airedale, just south of Skipton. The ducks and geese were all birds saved from slaughter.

Because I have been unwell I missed the opening of the Bendigo Lounge, but Emma, the Community Manager in the Bristol HQ, kindly sent me some photographs. I'm looking forward to my first visit.

It looks very impressive from the outside. It seems a bit pricey, but they must have a segment of the market they are after. Rye may have to respond.

The interior is light and airy and I like that.

When the sun goes down Bendigo's looks a lot different. The large windows will draw in the customers of that I am sure.

And just in case you're not sure where Bendigo's is here is a close-up from my Beeston Map. I wish them well.

I will end with a reference to The Tram and its future development.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I firmly believe there will be no more street tram lines in Greater Nottingham and that what extensions there are will be minimal (from Toton Lane to the HS2 station whenever that is constructed and opens will be it).

Bus technology and changing public transport patterns have made The Tram outdated already. In terms of cost it has been as wasteful as HS2 will be.

I'm not alone. Others are of the same mind. In the December 2017 edition of Buses magazine this new item appears quoting Jeff Counsell, the Managing Director of Trent Barton buses:

(large text my addition)

Just in case you don't know, or have forgotten, Trent Barton is owned by the Wellglade, who also operate the NET (Nottingham Tram). If the MD of their largest company is saying The Tram is not the future, then we should all take note.

Trent Barton believe the future is electric buses, bus lanes and traffic lights which favour all public transport and not just The Tram. The way we use public transport is changing, even here in Beeston. Back in January this year I argued the case for looking at creating a Beeston Buggy Bus Network, rethinking the way we use (and subsidise) community buses.

At some point Nottingham City Transport will have to invest in more comfortable buses — as Trent Barton have been doing for sometime. Buses can compete with The Tram in Nottingham on so many fronts. If roads and traffic lights gave priority to buses as well as The Tram, and all public transport in the conurbation was cashless, then bus journey times would be become better.

The future of public transport in the Nottingham conurbation is not The Tram — it is the bus in guises yet to be realised as we adapt to a world in which public transport is more personalised — you might say 'taxified' at a price we can all afford.

A favourite Beeston café

I admit to having favourite cafés, and being a creature of habit they have not changed since all three opened.

One of them, Mason and Mason has recently morphed into The Coffee Shop. 'Re-branding' they call it and the owners of Mason and Mason have just done what others have done before them.

The Coffee Shop is the first café on Beeston High Road (it may be Broadgate, but as far as I'm concerned the High Road begins at Humber Road). They have always served good coffee, salads and sandwiches and they have done all this without a proper kitchen, so you won't get cooked food at The Coffee Shop.

On Saturday, Susan and I dropped in for a sandwich and ended up having a couple of their delicious salads instead. The advantage being it meant no cooking when we got home and my two hours spent playing a secret policeman along the High Road had left me feeling close to knackered.

Susan had a goats cheese, beetroot and walnut salad

and I had a avocado and smoked salmon salad. We each sampled one another's salad and agreed they were delicious. For about a fiver each they were good value and when we both saw a 'Rhubarb Pressé' in the drinks cabinet there was no other choice for either of us. The smell of freshly cooked rhubarb escaped from the bottle as you removed the cap and exploded in your nose as you poured the pressé into the glass.

They say location is everything and I suspect the café has suffered because of the tram. When everyone using public transport arrived by bus from Lenton and the city a good few were in the habit of getting off at Humber Road and walking along the High Road to the shops. The first café they saw was Mason and Mason. Now it's The Coffee Shop.

(The blue 5 marks the location of a blue plaque)

It is not in a good location for passing trade, but it is well worth going to. The service is friendly and everything is freshly made, the coffee is excellent, as is the tea. It has been a favourite café since it opened and remains a favourite.

The trouble with living in Beeston is that we do not visit our favourite cafés enough. I keep promising myself that we will. In the meantime I can at least use BeestonWeek to draw attention to cafés I like and, in the process, encourage other folk, like you, to visit them too. You will not be disappointed I promise.

The changing face of Beeston

A couple of months out of action and how things change in Beeston if you walk from Humber Road to Park Road. I'm sure I will have missed things, but here is my take:

Still in the same ownership, just no longer Mason and Mason.

Odin's Table now say it will 'only be open to the public for pre-arranged events' and has closed as an eatery. I wish them well in their new guise.

A string of eateries on the south side of Beeston High Road. Cafe 94 appear on my earlier maps as 'Coffee Cup'. The name change passed me by until now.

Down on the south side of Chilwell Road, close to Latino's. I will go in once I can drink pale ale again. Right now I am taking too much medication to risk drinking alcohol!

This new bakery on the south side of Chilwell Road should be opening next Tuesday (18 April). I met the owner, Fang-Ju Shen, a lovely young woman, who stepped outside and invited me in as I was taking this photograph.  She intends to specialise in breads, cakes and biscuit from Taiwan and China, perhaps Korea and Japan as well. She gave me some samples which varied in texture and sweetness. All were enjoyable, which we ate for our tea with some cheese we bought from Jo's Local Not Global Deli a few doors down, where Susan and I stopped for tea and cake.

I intend to go back to the Fang-Ju's bakery and will write more after my next visit. There are a few chairs and tables inside the shop. The name comes from two characters in a children's story book she has written. As yet there is no website or Facebook page.

Another new shop is aimed at our canine friends and whilst there, one dog went in and another came out.

A Broxtowe Borough Council planning application tied to a nearby lamp-post says someone wants to turn the old Crossplay Music shop into (yet another) café.

Seven weeks, seven changes along Beeston's east-west shopping thoroughfare. How many of these changes have you noticed?

A very long week thanks to a bug

My ambitious plan to do a weekly post to BeestonWeek fell at the first hurdle, thanks to a 'flu like bug/virus which laid me low for over a fortnight. During this time the Toton by-election came and went, with UKIP coming last (see  Wikipedia entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broxtowe_Council_election,_2011#Toton_.26_Chilwell_Meadows)

I am sure that Labour will have noted that whilst both the Conservative (+2.6%) and UKIP (+15.9%) share of the vote went up, Labour's went down (-5.9%). You ignore any election at your peril. I want Nick Palmer to win in May, but you can understand why he is pushing hard.

I have had a Beeston Pubs & Cafes Map on my old parkviews blog for some time, but from now on its new home is going to be BeestonWeek.

During this time a Costa coffee bar has opened in The Square

and Jerry's American style hot dog cafe has closed.

 The sign in the window suggests it might re-open. I hope so.

Given Beeston's many and varied array of cafés I cannot understand why the town has not done more to exploit them. The coming of The Tram next year will be wonderful opportunity to attract visitors from other parts of the Greater Nottingham conurbation. It does run out of Nottingham as well as into it — something many seem to forget.

If I had the money I would give Beeston the best autumn and winter lights outside Blackpool, running for three months from 1 October – 2 January from Humber Road in the east to the Barton Gallery in the west.

But enough for now, time to think about enjoying the Christmas and New Year break. Season Greetings to those who see this post.

Robert Howard