Hockley, Nottingham

This article is about the area of central Nottingham. For places with a similar name, see Hockley (disambiguation).
Hockley, looking down Goose Gate

Hockley is an area near the centre of Nottingham, England. Hockley lies adjacent to the Lace Market, many well-preserved Victorian buildings. There has been a mercantile presence on the land since at least the 13th century. With many bars, restaurants and trendy clothes shops, it is a vibrant, modern section of the city, and has been described as "the Soho of Nottingham."[1]

History

The area was originally (from around 1285) called "Walker Gate", from the practice of "walking" or stamping upon cloth to make it softer after weaving.[2] Up until the 20th century Nottingham's fortunes have been tied to the "rag trade" (cloth industry), and from 1343 to 1345 the price of wool in Nottingham Market was taken as the standard for all England.[2] However, it has not always been quite as pleasant as it is now: Sir Jesse Boot, son of the founder of the Boots the Chemist and the architect of the business empire it is today, was born in poverty in the area in 1850.[3]

Culture

Hockley is home to many design, fashion, New Age and record shops, and galleries, bars and cafés.[4]

Hockey has an arthouse cinema, the Broadway Cinema which is "the East Midlands' flagship cinema and production house with an established national and international reputation for film exhibition, production and festivals". It was known for the annual film festival ("Shots in the Dark") it once held, whose honorary president was Quentin Tarantino. This apparently came to be after the cinema was the first in the UK to show Pulp Fiction, straight from the Cannes Film Festival - complete with French subtitles.[5] Another cinema that once operated in Hockley was the The Screen Room, which is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest commercial cinema, with just 21 seats and a single screen.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Close up on... Hockley". BBC Nottingham. 18 February 2005. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 J. Holland Walker (1927). "Hockley, Goose Gate, Platt Street, Coalpit Lane and Holland Street". An Itinerary of Nottingham. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  3. ↑ Matthew H.C.G., editor. Dictionary of National Biography on CD-ROM. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  4. ↑ Stephen McClarence. "Explore and Experience Nottingham". www.profilenottingham.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "It's another big Tarantino moment for the Broadway". By This is Nottingham. 14 August 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Smallest cinema in the world opens its doors". BBC Nottingham. 26 September 2002. Retrieved 11 October 2014.

External links

Coordinates: 52°57′14″N 1°08′35″W / 52.954°N 1.143°W / 52.954; -1.143

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