Bakersfield, Nottingham

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Bakersfield is a small suburb of Nottingham situated in the eastern part of the city. It lies near the suburbs of Carlton, Sneinton, and Colwick.

Centred around Oakdale Road (an extension of Sneinton Dale), Bakersfield was developed during the 1930's, with a mixture of private and council residential housing. A remarkable feature of the council housing (designed by T. Cecil Howitt) is the space given over to gardens and other open spaces. Other amenities added later included a supermarket (Greater Nottingham Coop on Oakdale Road), numerous smaller shops and a sub post-office. In common with most Nottingham developments of the time, housing was provided first, with other facilties being added later. The parish church of St John the Baptist at Carlton (further up Oakdale Road, opened in 1957) and St Stephen's on Sneinton Dale cover the area for the Church of England.

The Rio cinema on Oakdale Road opened in 1939 and closed due to the onslaught of television in 1959. It then became a night club; later still it was converted into a shop ('Supasave'). At present, the ground floor is used as a shop, with the former balcony level as a snooker club.

On the edge of Bakersfield is Colwick Woods, a large area of ancient woodland and green open space, leading down to the Nottingham Racecourse at Colwick. There are extremely fine vistas to be had from the top of Colwick Woods, with panoramic views of the Trent Valley (as far as Belvoir Castle) and across the City (to Wollaton, Clifton and the Ratcliffe on Soar power station).

Mainly residential it has a number of small businesses including a couple of public houses, a medical centre and a community centre. The area is served by the Jesse Boot Primary School (opened in 1935) and Greenwood Dale Technology School. A feature of the area is that many of the roadnames end in 'dale' (for example Parkdale, Langdale, Greendale and Kirkdale); which sometimes causes confusion for first-time visitors.