Credits
We-Al-d Alan Gilby (alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk)
Editorial & Marketing Assistant Caradoc Gayer (caradoc.gayer@leftlion.co.uk)
Stage Co-Editor Ian C. Douglas (ian@leftlion.co.uk)
Literature Co-Editor Andrew Tucker (literature@leftlion.co.uk)
Photography Co-Editor Sam Tariq (photography@leftlion.co.uk)
Editor-in-Chief Jared Wilson (jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk)
Music Co-Editor Phil Taylor (music@leftlion.co.uk)
Stage Co-Editor Dom Henry (dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk)
Literature Co-Editor Grace Sanders (literature@leftlion.co.uk)
Editor Sophie Gargett (sophie.gargett@leftlion.co.uk)
Music Co-Editor Karl Blakesley (music@leftlion.co.uk)
History Editor CJ DeBarra (history@leftlion.co.uk)
Food Co-Editor Julia Head (food@leftlion.co.uk)
Photography Co-Editor Dani Bacon (photography@leftlion.co.uk)
Community Editor Frances Danylec (community@leftlion.co.uk)
Cover art
Lily Faye
Editorial Intern
Jade Sowunmi
Investigator of… lecterns
Matt Blaney
Writers
Claire Spencer
Kieran Lister
Frances Thimann
Riya Pereira
Finnuala Brett
Nadia Whittome
Anna Mylonas
Photographers
Nick Dunmur
Tom Morley
Kyriaki Protopapa
Seanen Middleton
Sam Thacker
Lux Gagos
Andrew Walters
Wes Small
Harvey Tomlinson
Sarah Smith
Nick Archer
Eloise Idoine
Jon Robson
Head Designer Natalie Owen (natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk)
Fashion Editor Addie Kenogbon-Harley (fashion@leftlion.co.uk)
Environment Editor Adam Pickering (environment@leftlion.co.uk)
Food Co-Editor Lucy Campion (food@leftlion.co.uk)
Art Editor Benjamin Kay (art@leftlion.co.uk)
Distribution Dom Martinovs
Sports Editor Reuben Moynihan-Case (sport@leftlion.co.uk)
Heather Agyepong
Benjamin Wigley
Manuscripts and Special Collections
Lakeside Arts
Anna Mylonas
Illustrators
April Seaworth
Rebecca Leivers
Lily Keogh
National Library of Scotland
Featured Contributor
Finnuala recently moved back to Nottingham after achieving a First Class Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts, from the University of Bristol. Pursuing her interest in journalism, she's written a number of feature interviews and reviews for LeftLion
Recent pieces include an interview with Sylvia of Montana Notts, examining the role she's had in connecting Notts' street art scene, and an exhibition review of Kate MccGwire's Quiver (which you can read on p.35). At uni, she was travel editor for award-winning student magazine The Croft. Alongside an ongoing Substack blog, she’s had work published in Intrepid Times, Heroica, and achieved runner-up in National Geographic's Travel Writing Competition 2022.
With interests spanning the visual arts, history, culture, and an adventurous passion for travel and the outdoors, Finnuala aspires to drive stories with a human element, crafting long-form narratives that take a long view and connect readers to the heart of the story.
finnualabrett.journoportfolio.com
123 Learning, 35A Creative, Aaron Murray, Alan Underwood, Alex McFarlane, Alison Gove-Humphries, Alison Hedley, Alison Knox, Anamenti, Andrew Button, Ant Haywood, Audrey & Lizzy & Margot, BadGrammar MakesMeSic, Barbara Morgan, Ben Martin Saxophone, Ben Stewart, Big Bob McPlop, Cat Kearney, Cerys Gibson, Charlie Baylis, Chris Breese, Chris Jarvis, Chris Underwood, Claire Foss, Clare Foyle, Colin Tucker, Cyra GolijaniMoghaddam, Dan Hemmings, Daniel Ison Jones, David Belbin, David Knight, Dominic Morrow, Donna Rowe-Merriman, Eden PR, Ellie, Erika Diaz Petersen, Fallowed, F C and E Ledger, GC, Gemma Barfoot, Grant Butterworth, Grass Roots Garden Care, Graye Wilde, Half Moon Holistics, Harry Sutcliffe, Harry Turner, Hayley Howard, Heather Oliver, Holden Johnson, Holly's Merry Moggies, Ian Carroll, Ian Phillips, Ian Storey, Ian Yanson, Jack Moore, James Place, James Verran, Janine Lees, Jason Clifford, Jean Forsey, Jennifer Pearce, John Haslam, John Hess, John Holmes, John & Jackie Scruton, Jonathan Day, Joshua Heathcote, Julian Bower, Julian McDougall, Justyn Roberts, Kay Gilby, Kaye Brennan, Kelly Scott, Kiki Dee the Cat, Lawrence Poole, Laura Wilson, Leigh Woosey, Lilian Greenwood, Livi & Jacob Nieri, Louise Duffield, Louise Obuchowski, Luke Richardshon, Lyn, Marc Weaver, Mark, Mark Barratt, Mark Bond, Mark Dickson, Mark Gasson, Mark Jacobs, Martin Curtis, Mary, Matthew Riches & Justin Clark, MC, Mike Carter, Miri Debah, Monica White, Nic, Nick Palmer, Nigel Cooke, Nigel King, NottingJam Orchestra, Paul, Paul Boast, Pearl Quick, Philip Renshaw, Rachel Ayrton, Rachel Morton, Raphael Achache, Richard Donovan, Richard Goodwin, Rob Arthur, Robert Wyles, Rose Harvey, Roy Manterfield, Russell Brown, Ruth Hoyland, Saara Maqbool, Sam Fia, Sam Hudson, Sam Stiling, Sandra Pink, Sarah Colborne, Sarah Manton, Selectadisc, Simon Evans, Tessa Duell, The Sparrows’ Nest, Tom Dee, Steve Benton, Steve Holland, Steve Lyon, Steve Wallace, Sue Barsby, The Edgar Family, Tom Huggon, Tony Shelley, Tracey Newton, Vanessa Shaw, Wayne Norrie, Will Horton.
Living the Dream
We talk to honorary Notts rap artist JayaHadADream on her debut album, headline tour, and how she made her name in the city after coming here for uni.
Rest is Resistance
Duty of Care
Local creative and campaigner Danny Donnelly tells us about how he overcame personal adversity and went on to found young carers network CreatewithCare.
We meet British-Ghanian artist and actor Heather Agyepong, whose photography is currently showcased at the New Art Exchange gallery.
This Land is Ours
Tracking the history of north Notts countryside through the drawing of ducal boundaries and deforestation to today.
Out of Time
Strange events that occurred surrounding Theatre Square’s County Hotel, when Notts police enlisted a spirit medium to help them solve a mysterious death.
Going with the flow
Uni of Notts lecturer Dr Rachel Dishington on the exhibition she co-curated about the River Leen, and what we can learn from its history.
Hello once again
LeftLion readers, and welcome to our November issue. While Halloween is now behind us, this month we have continued to be inspired by all things dark and delightful…
Growing up in Hucknall, I have always been fascinated with Lord Byron, who is buried in the town’s St Mary Magdalene Church, along with his daughter, the mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace. My friends and I would go and drink cherry wine by his modest grave on Christmas night, and I thoroughly believe a wander around his ancestral home at Newstead Abbey can relieve any bad mood and provide a good dose of creative inspiration.
On one of my recent trips to the house, I was delighted to discover the enchanting Hart of the Wood film installations in the Newstead gardens, and had the pleasure of finding out more by interviewing filmmaker Benjamin Wigley (p. 2021). We weren’t strictly planning a theme for this issue, but Lord Byron and Newstead cropped up by chance in several articles (I will not object if the Romantic poet is haunting our office). Along with some beautiful cover art by local illustrator Lily Faye, I very much enjoyed the delve into the
Local
and
What’s new pussycat?
Two local players on the Nottingham Panthers roster talk about local pride, inspiring the next generation of ice hockey players, and the upcoming 2025/26 season.
A cup of Jim
We catch up with Lee & Fletcher founder Jim Lee, marking the 35th anniversary of his coffee roasting company which is loved around the city.
Goth and Soul
Sam Harrison Emm of local goth trio Hurtsfall talks to us about the Notts goth scene, personal style, and the literary inspirations behind their dramatic songs.
Building Bridges
We meet the hosts of the Nottingham Cultural Exchange: a community event which invites people around the city to share their language and culture.
mysteries of the Newstead lake by our resident urban-myth-investigator Matthew Blaney (p. 41).
Elsewhere, we’ve explored our relationship to the countryside in north Notts (p. 19) and the history of the River Leen that runs through it (p. 27).
You can also read our interview with two of the Nottingham Panthers (p. 29), honorary Notts rap artist JayaHadADream (p. 13), and local goth band Hurtsfall (p. 36). There’s also a wonderfully ethereal exhibition by British-Ghanaian visual artist and actor Heather Agyepong currently at New Art Exchange, which is well worth a visit. We chatted to her about being a creative with ADHD and the value of rest on p. 14.
I hope this issue brings you some creative food for thought as we venture into the darker months of the year – we very much recommend getting yourself out into nature and washing away the grit of the city to brighten up your days.
Until next time,
Hart of the Wood
artist
filmmaker Benjamin Wigley tells us about his intriguing audio-visual installations which are featured at Newstead Abbey.
LAStheatre presents
Saturday 13 December – Sunday 4 January
Family theatre for ages 3+
Lakeside Arts, University Park, NG7 2RD lakesidearts.org.uk/LittlestYak @LakesideArts
“ We absolutely loved this! Brilliant puppetry, stunning set, just gorgeous! Go see it!”
Audience member
Part of the University of Nottingham
"Would you like to smell my beard?”
"Feel my battered sausage, It’s still warm!"
“Mynan's90and she'svapedevery dayofherlife.”
“Now that probably is more grimoires than most people have.”
“Whenever I see old people I smile at them to let them know I'm not gang affiliated.”
“I'm never gonna find a woman who makes me as happy as a kebab does.”
“Aldi? Lidl? I thought it were the same shop…”
“Youneedfruit,youneed fruit and Jesus.”
Pick Six
For this month’s Pick Six we turn to Craig Proud of print studio Dizzy Ink, who hosts Notts Zine Fest on Saturday 8 November at the Central Library.
“I don’t think you can get concussed by a packet of hobnobs. Not with the number you get in them these days.”
Middle Aged Man outside Wetherspoons: “I love you, you know that.” Older man, possibly his Dad: “It's the wrong colour trampoline.”
Woman in Post office: “Do you sell stamps?”
"Not all buffets are all-you- can-eat... But all all-you- can-eats are buffets."
Favourite Book: People of the Abyss by Jack London
Rob Howie Smith (local legend) recently told me to read People of the Abyss - as I love Jack London, and Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell - which I have really enjoyed so far! But I read a lot of zines to be honest! MOAN Zine is a personal favourite! And anything graffiti related, too as they capture that same vagrant, chaotic, creative energy from around the world.
Personal Hero: Keith Edwards
Basically the world expert on organic colour. I met him at Green Hustle and it turns out he lives in the Meadows! We tend to talk about three things: organic colour, dogs and our disdain for the rozzers. We spend days going on adventures for colour and I recently organised a spellbinding event to get him in front of eager ears! Such a magical old man!
Favourite Place: Colwick Woods
Not the lake - the actual ancient woodland that separates Sneinton from Bakersfield. It's a big chunk of ancient woodland, previously owned by Lord Byron, close to the city centre. There's a bunch of cool stuff to find there like Byron's ice house, the stream, the cobbled roads, the burnout car, mushrooms, the best view of the city... makes me feel like a kid again, playing out with my dog Parsley there.
Both glass and concrete are primarily made out of sand, which makes skyscrapers giant sand castles.
Meal: Working Man’s Kitchen and The Avenues I've got two in Sneinton Market for similar reasons. Working Man's Kitchen for half price Thursdays, and got to be The Avenues (OGs call it Tasty Bites) - both are serving excellent food and they're places people travel to, enjoy time together before going on an adventure. It's not just about the food.
Holiday Destination: North East Coast
The obvious one would be Greece, as I married a Greek lass. But since we converted a van into a camper last year, we've been having weekends in the Peak District, or by the North East coast. You don't have to travel too far to reset, replenish, and restore your energy.
Historical figure: Lord Byron He has probably been mentioned a lot but for good reason! As a Philhellene, he's super well known in Greece, dedicating his life and finances to the country's independence from the Ottomans. He stood up for the underdogs, the lower classes and did it in style too!
words: Dani Bacon
PANE
the rain falls, heavy, dull and dark, shapes and shades are somehow changed the window pane is clouded, blurring, hiding everything that is beyond. then it is done, the pane clear harsh shock, fear! – sudden…
…till the rain falls again, gentle, grey the window pane is clouded once more softening and shielding, sparing…
Frances Thimann
UNDERCOVER ARTIST
This month’s cover artist Lily Faye shares her inspirations, from Japanese culture to fairytale books and folklore.
Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m Lily, an illustration graduate based in Nottingham. Since completing my degree a couple of years back, I’ve been focused on building my portfolio and honing my skills as a freelance illustrator. My work is inspired by nature, folklore, magic, pagan culture, and the whimsical. I enjoy working with both digital and traditional methods, often combining my iPad and pencil in Procreate with classic fineliner pens, Indian inks, dip pens, and watercolour paints. I love experimenting with different mediums; sometimes I crave the freedom of getting messy with my hands, and other times I aim for a more refined finish. I live in a quiet village with my husband and our two Shiba Inu dogs, who keep life playful. When I’m not drawing, you’ll often find me daydreaming about, or travelling to, my favourite destination, Japan, a place that continues to inspire my creativity.
What is the story behind the cover?
nottinghampoetryfestival.com
Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...
The Southwell Minster Lectern
Did you know that Hadrian, who built the wall, was homosexual (they all were - it was all those uniforms)? But they made a bust of his lover and they found it when they were dredging in the Thames when they were doing the Elizabeth Line. Then there was a time on the Antiques Roadshow where someone brought in a bust, but it was just made from concrete so it was worthless in the end.
The County Hotel
What a disaster. It was a fantastic building. On the first floor they had a billiard room with twenty odd tables. They had a marvellous stage, and the actors didn’t have to go across town to stay somewhere. The building had a fantastic curve, and just because it wasn’t a Grade I listed building they knocked it down before they could say Jack Robinson, and then apologised. Anyone can do that. Just appalling.
The River Leen
It went under the main stand at Notts County and they were able to cut it off, but a lot of it’s underground isn’t it? Look at the Wilkinson Street Police Station, and then it goes near the QMC. Where the St Wilford’s Church is – it’s been rerouted there, and the Trent was rerouted after the war, so perhaps they thought if Capability Brown could do it at Chatsworth, they could do it in Nottingham. Sod the locals eh?
Newstead Abbey has always been a special place to me; I’ve always loved its historic ruins and peaceful Japanese gardens. The interactive film sculpture Hart of the Wood, which you can see at the abbey, instantly sparked my imagination. I visited the Abbey with my sketchbook and phone, taking notes and photos of what inspired me from both the installation and the surroundings. The magazine cover grew from those sketches and impressions, combining everything I love about folklore, nature, and Newstead Abbey.
What inspires you as an artist?
Since I was young, I’ve been inspired by Japanese animation, fairytale books, and Aesop’s Fables. I was fascinated by detailed, imaginative artwork and storytelling, and I just wanted to draw like the artists behind those worlds. Even now, I still turn to books for inspiration and take walks in nature to spark ideas for my next creative project.
Tell us about some things you’ve worked on in the past…
After graduating, I began my freelance illustration career by designing a few book covers for an independent author. Since then, my work has appeared in books, magazines, and even on products in shops, which has been incredibly rewarding. I’ve also created Christmas gift wrapping and greeting cards for an art licensing company, which gave me a real sense of seeing my illustrations out in the world. Today, I sell my products at Hopkinson Centre, near Nottingham’S train station, as well as through my Etsy shop. Knowing that people have my art in their homes brings me so much joy and keeps me inspired to keep creating.
Do you have any tricks for getting started and staying inspired as a creative?
I took a break from art for a while to focus on my mental health, but since returning to it late last year, I’ve felt more inspired than ever by the world around me. Spending time in nature, surrounding myself with kindness, and remembering why I create in the first place all keep me motivated. I also limit my time on social media, post my work, then step away. Success doesn’t depend on follower counts, and it’s freeing to remember that.
If you could sit down and chat with any artist in your field, who would it be and what would you talk about?
The first person who comes to mind is Holly Exley, a nature and wildlife watercolour illustrator whose work I’ve followed for nearly ten years. I’d love to thank her for how much she’s inspired me. Beyond her incredible talent, she seems so down-toearth and genuinely kind. It would be amazing to hear about her experiences and her approach to art from a personal perspective.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?
‘Keep chasing your dreams and goals, no matter your age; it’s never too late to start. Have confidence in yourself, and don’t forget to be kind to yourself along the way’. Thanks for reading this. I hope this cover speaks to you, and you can follow my art journey or commission me for work via my website and socials at @LilyFayeIllustration. lilyfayeillustration.com
Nadia on...
digital IDs
In my twelve years as a Labour Party member and knocking on doors across our city, and indeed this country, not a single person has ever told me that what they really need to improve their lives is mandatory digital ID. This is what I told the government in Parliament last month, when I raised my serious concerns about the proposal.
There are many reasons why a mandatory digital ID is a policy we shouldn’t pursue: it’s divisive, expensive, introduces data security risks and undermines our civil rights. Many constituents have written to me, opposing the idea for similar reasons. Yet what I find the most baffling is the government’s determination to force it through now – at a time when people are struggling with the cost of living crisis and failing public services. The billions that would be required to roll out the policy would be far better spent investing into our communities, ending child poverty, or tackling the housing crisis.
The government first framed the digital ID policy around tackling “illegal” migration and irregular working. It’s unlikely it would be effective in relation to either issue as you already need a national security number in order to work in the UK – which you can only get if you have a right to work – and black market employers who pay people in cash won’t suddenly start asking people for digital ID.
Then there’s the dangerous myth that some migrants are ‘not in the system’, and are abusing our laws or public services. We already collect asylum seekers’ fingerprints and face scans to receive a registration card, and foreign nationals already have a digital ID – the e-visa. But crucially, this narrative frames those without a settled status as an invisible threat, as though it is foreign nationals who have broken our society, instead of the failures of previous governments, austerity, and ballooning wealth inequality. It justifies more surveillance, despite evidence proving otherwise.
Now ministers are championing other, future use cases of the digital ID, such as helping renters to prove their identity to landlords, improving access to welfare and other benefits, or making it easier for parents to apply for free childcare. While these may sound like sensible reforms in the modern age, my concern is that people may not be able to opt out of such a system. While it’s true that much of our world has been digitised, it’s not mandatory for people to share their data online. Yet if digital IDs become a requirement to work – the first stage under the current proposals – they will effectively become mandatory for everyone of working age.
government says it has ruled out storing digital ID data in a single, centralised database – an approach that campaign groups like Big Brother Watch have warned would be a “honeypot for hackers" – but even the federated system being proposed wouldn’t be immune to breaches.
Then there’s the issue of privacy, which is all about how that data could be used or shared. There would be nothing to stop future governments from centralising the system later, linking it with other databases or expanding the digital ID system in a way which shuts people out of services and increases discrimination. Frankly, I worry what would happen to such a system under a possible future Reform-led government. Can you imagine giving that sort of power to politicians who openly voice their disdain for minority groups or their political opponents?
Another worry is the likely negative impact this policy would have on digitally excluded groups, such as those on low-income and the elderly, when accessing services or looking for employment. Almost 4.5 million adults in the UK do not own a smartphone and 11 million adults lack the essential digital skills needed to complete basic tasks such as setting up an email account.
Once a system like this exists, it would be very easy to expand. We could find ourselves moving towards a society where individuals must ‘show their papers’ for everything. That is not what the current proposals entail, but once the scheme exists, this government, or any future government, could further expand it. There would be a fundamental shift in the relationship between individuals and the state, which risks undermining the fundamental right to privacy.
People are also right to be concerned about both the security and the privacy risks that digital ID policy could create. Any large-scale identity system is vulnerable to hackers or cyberattacks. The
I believe that introducing mandatory digital ID cards is a serious political miscalculation by the government. With only 31% of the public supporting it, the policy risks alienating voters and handing figures like Nigel Farage an easy opportunity to posture as defenders of civil liberties (which clearly, they’re not). By pushing ahead, despite clear public opposition, the government will once again erode trust with voters, as it did with cuts to the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits. We can’t risk wasting precious political capital or public money, which could instead be used to tackle record levels of inequality, collapsing public services, and runaway climate breakdown.
When the last Labour government attempted this policy under Tony Blair, it collapsed due to widespread backlash over costs and concerns about civil liberties. Nearly two decades later, digital ID cards remain just as unpopular. The government must read the room or it will commit yet another act of political self-sabotage.
nadiawhittome.org
words: Nadia Whittome photo: Lux Gagos
Living the Dream
Since winning last year’s Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent competition, things have only been on the up for Cambridge-via-Notts artist JayaHadADream. From collaborating with both local names and national heavyweights in dance music and hip hop, like Andy Zoutr, Gardna, and Flowdan, to receiving nods from the likes of Stormzy, there’s truly no stopping her. Wonderfully, she also got her start right here in Nottingham. With her debut album Happiness From Agony now released, plus a Metronome show this month, she told us how life’s going at the moment.
Hey Jaya, you recently put out your debut album Happiness From Agony. How are you feeling about this new chapter?
Honestly, I feel really good about where I’m at right now. It feels like everything has led up to this point, even little things, like when I used to make YouTube videos when I was younger. Every part of my journey has shaped this moment. Happiness From Agony is my favourite project so far because I’ve completely stuck to who I am. It moves through all my styles – grime, hip hop, even drum and bass, and it just feels true.
You’ve performed hundreds of shows over the years, but this is your first headline tour. How does it feel to take that next step?
It feels incredible. I’ve done over 200 shows – from open mics to support slots, so being able to put together my own tour feels surreal. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so to finally be at a point where I can curate the whole experience and bring everything I’ve learnt together is really special.
I’m especially excited to perform in Nottingham. The city has always shown me love, and I can’t wait to share this new music with the people who saw me at the start.
You studied at the Uni of Nottingham and were part of the local hip hop community. What role did the city play in shaping you?
A huge one. The Nottingham creative scene is taking off and it’s so deserved – it’s a vessel of authentic voices. When I was at uni I’d go to open mics in my spare time, and that’s where I started to get noticed and booked for paid shows.
I joined the hip hop society at UoN, which was sick – that’s where I performed my first shows at Rough Trade and connected with people who are still part of my community today. Those years were hard, but they were also the best time to grow. Nottingham validated me to cross over into different genres and to not minimise myself.
What does a creative process look like for you?
My creative processes start off as just little things, for example a thought on a train – it’s usually on a train – and then I’ll write down my first line. I put a lot of pressure on my first line, and it’s an internal pressure. It’s an unconscious stream of thoughts at first and then I start
to shape it up. I like to think that’s what’s got me here so I should keep on doing that.
You’ve spoken before about representation and being a woman in Hip Hop. Has that experience shaped your writing?
Definitely. Growing up, I didn’t see many female rappers who looked or sounded like me and that’s not their fault. The industry just didn’t give them the same opportunities as men. The songs that labels invest in by women often focus on money, sex or beauty, and that made me want to talk about other things.
I want to show what it’s like just existing as a woman, without the male gaze. Not every song has to be about pleasing men. I want to write about career, identity, doubt, joy. Just being.
i’ Ve started to see my VoiCe as an instrument,on my more danCe-inspired songs. it doesn’t haVe to dominate, it Can bLend, FLow, add texture
Your sound moves between grime, hip hop, UK garage, drum and bass, and other genres. How did that versatility come about?
I’ve always been quite versatile. When I listen back to my early stuff, I was rapping over Wiley beats one minute, and Tupac beats the next. But the Nottingham and wider Midlands scenes really invited me to experiment more with garage, drum and bass, and grime.
Doing a freestyle on BBC 1Xtra with Sir Spyro last year opened a lot of doors. Producers started hitting me up, and that’s how my bassline track Sick of the Chatter came about. I’ve started to see my voice as an instrument, especially on my more dance-inspired songs. It doesn’t have to dominate, it can blend, flow, add texture.
How do you navigate being a woman in the space that you’re in? Does it come with its challenges?
The guy artists are actually very mindful of it. I’ll be at a set full of guy artists and one of the guys will reach over to help me get to the front and I really appreciate it. It does come with its challenges though. I’ve started to get
harassed on trains and stuff – it’ll mainly be men. Some guys are just too much and don’t take into account that it’s 1am and I’m on a train by myself. I also think people DM me things that they wouldn’t DM my male counterparts, which isn’t fair. People have also assumed that my producer is my manager before, just because he’s a man and older than me, when it’s me that does all of the admin, and I work so hard – it really annoys me.
Your Glastonbury performance was a major moment. What did it mean to you?
That performance changed my life. I’d won a competition to get there, so even before stepping on stage, there was a lot of buzz. Performing there felt like confirmation, like everything I’d worked for made sense. Glastonbury really established me.
Did you always envision music to be the route you’d go down?
I always wrote lyrics and words down. This started from primary school with poetry and I was always writing. I used to write for a ‘made-up’ girl band, in my head. At that time I wasn’t feeling very empowered, and used to think that no one would listen to me if I rapped so I was trying to minimise myself. Then I got older and was just naturally drawn to it. I used to write in my bedroom and pretend I was on stage, but no one knew for a very long time. Then, when I was fifteen or sixteen, it became a thing where I couldn’t hide it anymore.
What’s next after the tour?
I’ve got big plans, more collaborations – maybe even a vinyl for my project Happiness From Agony. I’m also working on JayaHadADream merch and thinking about learning an instrument to use live.
What do you want people to feel when they listen to your music?
Connection. Relief. When I used to listen to Kanye, Jay Z, or Skepta, I’d think, ‘They get it.’ I want listeners to feel that same sense of being understood. Especially women like me, women who don’t fit into one box.
Jaya performs at Metronome on Friday 7 November 2025. Her debut album, Happiness From Agony, was released on 24 October 2025.
interview: Jade Sowunmi photo: Sam Thacker
Rest Is Resistance
interview: Jared Wilson
photos: Tom Morley & Heather Agyepong
Heather Agyepong is a British-Ghanaian photographer, visual artist and actor based in London. In 2024 she entered her work into the New Art Exchange Open and won one of the awards. This led to her current solo exhibition From Sunrise to Sunset, She Worked to Reform Herself: Part 1 which is on show in the city until January. She told us more about her intriguing art practice and life as an actor…
When did you first start out as an artist and photographer?
I bought an entry level camera from Jessops when I was nineteen and started experimenting with photography from there. However, I wouldn’t have called myself an artist back then, it was probably only in my late twenties when I started to think about myself in those terms.
Your exhibition is inspired by and takes its name from Nickel Boys, the 2024 film by RaMell Ross. What was it about that film that inspired you?
I saw it when it first came out in the cinema. I’d had so many of my friends telling me that I needed to watch it and they obviously knew my taste quite well. I was completely blown away and it awakened something in me. I was fascinated that they’d filmed it all in the point of view of the characters. It felt like something I'd never seen done in mainstream film before because all the characters were Black and there was a deep level of care depicting their humanity. It was a really delicate, humane and beautiful film. I felt really connected to it, particularly its themes of work and rest, which have often been part of my own thoughts and work.
there’s this idea in soCiety that being oVerworKed is good. my worK is a reaCtion to that. i FeLt this idea oF being in a reL ationship with myseLF and haVing a duty to myseLF
You’ve been diagnosed with ADHD. How did that change your perception of your own identity and your subsequent art work?
I was diagnosed this summer. My therapist spoke to me about ADHD burnout and thought that was something I was going through. Obviously I'd been aware that I might have ADHD earlier than that, because some of the characteristics I'd read about felt similar to things I had or was going through. However, the diagnosis was a Eureka moment for me. I'm still kind of discovering how it shifts and changes my work. It's really early days but it's given me an insight of how my brain works. I think I now understand myself better, but I'm definitely still only at the start of the journey.
You’re dressed as a bride in various bits of the exhibition, playing with the idea of being ‘betrothed to oneself’. What do you mean by that?
The work centres around taking back something that capitalism has drained out of you. There’s this idea in society that being overworked is good. It conflates the idea of working yourself flat out with being successful; even if it takes everything from you including any space to rest or celebrate oneself. My work is a reaction to that. I felt this idea of being in a relationship with myself and having a duty to myself.
What does this exhibition mean to you personally?
I can't explain how proud I am of this work. I just want to go back to the exhibition and sit in it and absorb it myself. More than any other exhibition I've had it feels very alive. I called it ‘Part 1’ because it’s not a full stop or a full reflection of a period of time. I’m still going through it and still learning new things. I’ve made myself some A3 versions of the pieces and they’re in my house right now. I feel particularly connected to them. They’re telling me something.
You were a winner at the 2024 NAE Open competition. What did that acknowledgement mean to you?
It’s the dream! Any artist who applies for an open exhibition dreams of getting their own show. It’s also really exciting for me to have a show outside of London. I think I was in shock for a while
after it was announced. I’d been thinking about the project for a long while, but winning the open contest really spurred me on and I guess I was like ‘Oh, I've really got to do this now.’ There’s a part of me that was avoiding making the work because a lot of it was about confronting myself and knowing I had to examine my own relationship with work. So, yeah, I was really excited but, even though I knew it would lead to positive outcomes, I also knew it was going to be a challenge.
As well as art, you have an increasingly successful career as an actress. How did you first get into acting?
I always wanted to be an actor for as long as I could remember and felt really switched on when I was performing. I didn't go to drama school, but I always trained in some sort of acting methodology whenever I could. The big shift that happened for me was when I went to see a young people’s theatre program called Show by Talawa – a Black-led theatre company. The programme was for people aged between eighteen and 25. I was 25 when I went to see that show and I immediately applied to join their company and basically begged them to accept me because I knew it was the final year I could get on their programme. Thankfully I got on it and did a show, which went well. I became really confident and eventually I got an agent. I also became an Associate Artist with Talawa for a year. They really helped to shape my acting career.
In 2024 you starred in Amazon Prime’s series The Power. Tell us about your experiences working on that series…
Yeah, it was a wild time because they were filming pretty much all over the world, with my parts in South Africa. It was an incredible experience, but it was all done during the pandemic so covid was in the background. It was really strange being isolated and not at all a traditional way of making a TV show. I really resonated with Naomi Alderman's book which it was all based on, which broadly asked the question ‘what would the world be like if the dominant gender was female?’ I’d previously been in a play called Noughts and Crosses, which was similar but asked what the world would be like if the dominant culture was African. That sort of role reversal of power can be a useful exercise and makes you think a lot about gender, race and power and control.
You’ve done a few stage plays but Shifters, written by Benedict Lombe and directed by Lynette Linton, got you lots of attention. What were your experiences working on that?
If I'm honest, they might have set the bar too high for such an early piece of work in my career. It was a really meaningful project and challenged me as an actor. I grew and it felt important for the culture. It was everything that you would want as an actor in a play. It inspired me in a lot of ways.
For Shifters you were nominated for the award of ‘Best Actress’ at the 2025 Olivier awards. That’s a pretty big deal! How did it feel to be acknowledged like that?
I was in shock for a while and to some extent I still am. I find it quite difficult to receive praise and acknowledgement like that. I’d put my heart and soul into that play. I was more excited about us getting the nomination for best play, which felt like it belonged to all of us. It took me a while to process my own nomination and I'm still processing it if I'm completely honest. It’s an honour to be acknowledged, but I also realised that it’s true what people say and I'm not really chasing for awards – I'm chasing for the process. I'm doing it because I’m really in love with what I do.
From Sunrise to Sunset, She Worked to Reform Herself: Part 1 is showcased at the New Art Exchange until 24 January 2026. Heather will be in conversation with curator Lisa Anderson on Wednesday 12 November.
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Duty of Care
Across the UK, millions of unpaid carers face invisibility every day. Statistics prove that three in five adults will become a carer at some point, and two-thirds of young carers receive no support at all. Following his own personal experience as a young carer, Notts local Danny Donnelly set up CreatewithCare, a project using creativity to support the wellbeing of carers, raise awareness, and connect people to local support. He tells us about his journey and work…
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what inspired you to start CreatewithCare?
“At times, joy has felt like a risk.” That’s a line I wrote two years ago for All You Need Is a Pen, our first young carers’ anthology, and it still resonates with every carer who reads it.
I’ve been a young carer for my dad since I was about ten, although I realise I was a carer much younger. He has Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, and it’s hard to describe how completely that changes your world. As his mobility deteriorated, I took on more cooking, cleaning, managing emotions, and later, personal care.
He’s been housebound ever since, and though his quality of life is limited, creativity is our escape. We travel through stories, music, and film. Art becomes the way to cope and connect when our world feels small.
What’s hardest is watching families like ours fall through the cracks. When services are cut, carers absorb the impact. We’re invisible in so many ways, yet without us, everything collapses. Just because you can’t see the strain doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
At seventeen, my life changed again when my family and I were attacked in a public park, leaving me with a head injury, two breaks in my jaws, and long-term neurological symptoms. For months, I could barely walk. Every day sounds and light would make me sick. My mum literally held my arm as I took each step, relearning balance and confidence.
Creativity became my lifeline. Music, writing, and art helped me process grief for my former self and rebuild my identity. Sharing my story helped others, and helping others helped me heal too.
You’re also studying nursing, how has that influenced your perspective?
As a student nurse, I’ve seen the same invisibility in healthcare. Out of hundreds of professionals I met, only a couple knew about the local carer charity. Most didn’t understand how wide caring roles reach, or how deeply they affect health and wellbeing.
When staff do understand, they want to help, but often they simply don’t have the resources or training. It’s why awareness is so crucial; carer wellbeing can be deeply linked to patient outcomes.
What led to the creation of CreatewithCare?
Around one in ten pupils provide high or very high levels of care, yet 79% of schools report zero young carers on their census. Two-thirds receive no support at all, and they face twice the risk of suicide compared with non-carers.
The young carers I’ve supported constantly remind me why this work matters. Their strength and humour inspire me every day. Through CreatewithCare, I wanted to build something that made them feel seen, safe spaces where they can express themselves, to just be, have fun and to talk about health, identity and wellbeing in a natural way.
What began as small workshops has grown into national advocacy, influencing policy, healthcare, and education.
What kinds of projects have you developed through CreatewithCare?
We’ve co-produced two creative writing anthologies with young carers, giving them the freedom to share their stories from inventing wild, imaginary worlds, to exploring anxiety and self care.
We also co-created The Daily Lives of Young Carers, an animation made with carers aged between nine and seventeen that highlights both the challenges and pride in their roles, and promotes support from Young Carers Notts. A second animation, with Nottingham Carers Association, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, will focus on student carers and launches next year.
Alongside the creative work, I’ve focused on making practical support easier to find; developing a public directory of carer charities and community art projects across Nottinghamshire, helping families find wellbeing opportunities.
i wanted to buiLd something that made them FeeL seen, saFe spaCes where they Can express themseLVes, to just be, haVe Fun and to taLK about heaLth, identity and weLLbeing in a naturaL way
At the University of Nottingham, I created new entitlement forms to identify student carers and link them with support. These tools are now being embedded in the university, with plans to expand across the city, with new health-promotion resources.
You’re also doing a lot of national advocacy, can you tell us more?
I sit on Nottingham’s Carers Strategy Implementation Board, working with councils, NHS trusts, universities, and charities to strengthen carer support across the region.
Nationally, I’ve co-authored policy papers on carer health inequalities with Dr Karen E. Neil, Dr Michael Watson, and the Institute of Health Promotion and Education. I met with Lord Philip Hunt at the House of Lords to share this evidence, alongside poetry written by the young carers themselves, which inspired his support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Young and Young Adult Carers (APPG).
I now co-chair the APPG’s national inquiry into removing barriers to education, employment and training for young carers, helping shape recommendations to be presented in Parliament.
What changes have you seen in the young carers who’ve taken part?
The transformation has been incredible. Many began shy, but ended as confident young writers, mentoring others and sharing their stories proudly. This project has been one of the greatest honours of my life.
Parents told us: “These sessions helped my daughter open up and gave her a safe space to express herself, more effective for her mental health than any professional support we’ve tried” and “Her confidence has reignited, she’s smiling more, writing more, performing again.”
Teachers noticed it too: “The impact was incredible. Students found meaning, belonging, and the confidence to share parts of themselves they’d never expressed before.”
One young carer found the courage to write about their loss for the first time, something professional involvement wasn’t able to do. Their words, their love and story has been deeply powerful for their family and us, and their love will inspire much more. A reminder of how powerful creativity can be for healing. I’m proud CreatewithCare has become a space where young carers can be themselves.
What keeps you motivated, even when the work feels heavy?
The resilience of these young carers amazes me every day. They go through so much, yet still bring joy to others and make people feel seen. That’s what gives me what I call “innate energy”, the drive to keep going, even when things feel heavy, because they deserve better.
What message would you share with other carers?
Before we finished our anthology project, I asked the young carers what message they’d want to share with others in their shoes, these included: “You are not alone. Don’t do it alone”, “It’s not a curse, it’s a blessing”, “Your story matters”, and “Don’t push yourself to do what you can’t, plenty of rest.”
Change starts with awareness. We need more people to understand the realities of being a carer, the challenges, yes, but also the creativity, resilience, and strength that define their experiences.
With Carers Rights Day approaching on Thursday 20 November, it feels like the right time to shine a light on what life is really like for carers. A reminder that our young carers deserve to be recognised, valued and supported every single day, in schools, workplaces, universities and hospitals.
Even if you’re not a professional, you can still make a difference. If you know someone who looks after a loved one, encourage them to check what support is available. Together, we can stop carers from suffering in silence.
CreateWithCare is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and donations from the Nottingham Alumni, staff, students and friends through the Cascade funding. Find out more at the website below.
interview: Sophie Gargett photos: Tom Morley
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This Land is Ours
In a twist on our regular love letter to local areas ‘These Streets Are Ours’, this month we turn to the forests and country estates of the north. Caradoc Gayer looks at how our common land has been lost, the modern regulations that confine our rambling, how Ducal estates and boundaries have transformed the landscape, and how we can remind ourselves of our lasting, and strong connection to the natural world.
Many of us visit the countryside to deviate from the beaten track – escaping from that feeling of restrictiveness that you sometimes get while living in a city. When it comes to the countryside north of Notts, there’s plenty of options to do so.
You can get to Newstead Abbey, for example, pretty easily by bus or car. If you so choose you can also walk a mile through woodland from the gates to the abbey itself, which (speaking from experience) is a lovely and effective way of reacquainting yourself with nature, especially when there’s surrounding autumn colours.
Beyond the Newstead and Ravenshead area, there’s the cycleable, otherworldly stretches of Sherwood Pines, Sherwood Forest itself, other country estates like Thoresby, Welbeck, and Rufford, and lots of other beautiful green expanses to get lost in.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine that one fifth of Nottinghamshire was once covered by forest, but back in the 13th century that was the reality. Spanning 100,000 acres, Sherwood Forest was more-or-less what everyone would think of as ‘the Nottingham area’.
We can loosely trace the Robin Hood legend back to this century, when woodland-dwelling highwaymen were common problems for rich folks passing through Nottingham. Newstead Abbey (then called St Mary’s Priory) itself was a target for outlaws, supposedly leading to the attempted-and-failed construction of a nearby fortress, around 1205.
Before the 13th century it would have been a little more difficult to pursue the outlaw lifestyle. From the Norman
Conquest, the majority of English woods were for the king to use and hunt in. Anyone breaking those laws did so under threat of imprisonment or mutilation. The 1172 Charter of the Forest, however, allowed common people to start using the woods for building, resource gathering, and pasturing. This could well have paved the way for an anti-establishment, Robin-Hood-legend-creating atmosphere in Nottingham. When King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1542, religious locales, like Newstead, Rufford, and Welbeck, were sold to rich nobles, along with their surrounding land. This set a precedent that English countryside was sellable, and therefore usable for other purposes. Farming and industry shaped the English landscape which shrunk the Nottinghamshire woodland.
nowadays, it’s hard to imagine that one FiF th oF nottinghamshire was onCe CoVered by Forest, but baCK in the 13th Century that was peopLe’s reaLity
Later, industry expanded and places like Wollaton Hall and Thoresby Hall were built. Their surrounding landscapes were reshaped for the tastes of their owners, the beauty disguising processes behind them – through the 15th and 18th century common land was rapidly enclosed, to make it industrially and agriculturally efficient. Beautiful parts of the countryside were for people who could either afford or farm it.
Today most of these country estates are open for the public to explore. However, access to nature remains complex and contested, as only 8% of the British countryside is
completely free for access – so say campaigners for the ‘right to roam’ movement. This is a consequence of tangled laws that are part of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
There are also arguments that widespread private ownership of land makes it prone to less-than-ideal use by corporations. When land is sell-able, it’s sell-able to pretty much anyone.
In his book Landmarks writer Robert Macfarlane recounts an instance of this. In 2004, a biodiverse peatland on the Isle of Lewis was about to have Europe’s largest wind farm built on top of it – a cause that was either honourable, irresponsible, or both, depending on your perspective. It was partly through advocacy via poetry and music about the Lewisian natural world that locals got that stopped.
So how in a Notts context can we ensure that our connection to nature remains strong and vibrant? It’s probably worth supporting community initiatives that remind us of our stewardship over the countryside, whether it’s the Sherwood People’s Forest, spearheaded by locals Sarah Manton and Ezekiel Bone, Grow Notts, led by Jack Harris, Nottingham Green Guardians, or the Nottingham Climate Assembly.
It’s easy to feel a little powerless, hearing bad news, dayby-day, of nature being exploited, beyond it just ‘existing’ and reminding us of how connected we are to it. Still though, organising on a local level continues to be valuable. Sometimes it’s worth reminding ourselves that these lands are, and always have been, ours.
hart of the wood
words: Sophie Gargett
With its elegant ruins, serene rolling gardens and rich literary history, Newstead Abbey already makes for an atmospheric autumnal wander, but currently, another escape awaits within its historic landscape. Dotted within the grounds, the Hart of the Wood project shares a series of intriguing 16mm films exploring the seasons, our relationship with folklore and the land. We spoke to Notts filmmaker Benjamin Wigley to hear about the artistry and story behind these curious hand-powered moving pictures…
It’s a Monday morning and I have been warmly invited into the West Bridgford workshop and lab of filmmaker Benjamin Wigley. Situated in a converted garage beside the house, the walls are dotted with artwork, sketches, and posters of Benjamin’s previous film projects, while the workbenches are stacked with strange instruments, vintage knickknacks, and an assortment of analogue film-making equipment. There’s a large box of wooden bones tucked under a table and some slightly unsettling carved masks grin menacingly from around the room. It's a wonderfully tactile and creative space.
Despite being a place where films are made, there aren’t screens full of flashy editing software cluttering this creative hideaway, but instead a selection of reel-to-reel contraptions that lie in wait for delicate film to be processed and carefully fed through into them. At Newstead, the Hart of the Wood films also inhabit their own peculiar spaces. Encased in sculptures inspired by kinetoscopes –an early film screening device developed in the late 19th century by Thomas Edison’s lab. The viewer is invited to step onto a short ladder, lift their head into a box and wind a handle to make the films play, giving an all-encompassing experience that shuts out the surrounding environment for a short time.
“I wanted to bring film into the landscape,” Benjamin explains. “When I began making them, people were thinking about apps and augmented reality, but my point was for people not to be on their phones. So the idea was to almost stick your head inside a tree, and then once you've experienced that thing, you're able to relook at that same place with a different imagination.”
With a background in fine art and intermedia, Benjamin went to study 16mm film at NO.W.HERE, an artist-run film production space in Bethnal Green. He began experimenting with kinetoscope technology around ten years ago, slowly building towards Hart of the Wood with various iterations, improvements and discoveries along the way as both his collaborations formed and technology progressed.
Working with Matt Little, an electronic and electrical engineer, to develop the technology, Benjamin talks about the creative process of trial and error; learning how to make old film durable enough to last outside in the elements, experimenting with developing solutions made from plants, creating mechanisms so viewers could power the film themselves without electricity, and balancing the recorded soundscapes with the noisy interference of the hand crank.
There are numerous elements to Hart of the Wood, from story to sound. Although the project has been led by Benjamin, collaboration has been integral, with inventors, woodworkers, sound artists, poets and performers all bringing their own skills to
the mix. Among them are Nathaniel Robin Mann, a folk musician and ‘sonic adventurer’ who gives a phantasmic performance. Ethereal vocals are provided by award-winning folk singer Lisa Knapp, artist Stephen Jon Cooper brings yet more layers to the production with ancient looking masks, and handcrafted instruments called ‘wind wands’ were created by Sneinton Market woodworker Martin Somerville. This meeting of minds shows the depth of thought and knowledge that the project is steeped in.
Having delved briefly into how the films were created, we then move into the why. Originally made in Comer Woods, situated in the Dudmaston Estate in Shropshire, the films were produced to mark forty years of ownership under the National Trust. In June this year Nottingham City Museums & Galleries invited Benjamin to show the work at Newstead Abbey. Three films, which are around three minutes each, can be found in the gardens, and are centred around autumn, winter and spring, whilst a fourth, longer, summer-themed film is available to watch inside the historic house.
With the flickering medium of 16mm film, and the escape into the kinetoscope, the films have a spellbinding atmosphere that is as alluring as it is unsettling. Sigils made of bones, eyes chalked on trees, otherworldly vocals and chants all evoke a time when humans had a much deeper connection to ritual, the forest and nature. There are moments of obscured familiarity, like the feeling of a dream slipping away, and flickers of foreboding, like flashes of a nightmare.
whiLe a .i. begins to inFiLtrate our artForms and erase the VitaLLy important CreatiVe journey, hart oF the wood brings as muCh beauty to the proCess as the produCt
I ask Benjamin about the somewhat sinister element to the imagery. Is this pure storytelling and dramatics, or is there something deeper within folklore and our connection to the wilderness of forests that is inherently dark?
“The first fairy tales were often propaganda to stop people going into the woods, and that has had an impact on the way that societies have perceived these spaces - they were often scared, so some of the visual language has to be connected with that in many ways. But also, there's a legacy to a time where there was a transition from Paganism to the Christian religion, and the tension that caused,” says Benjamin.
Within the work, several archetypes can be seen; Gaia, the personification of Mother Earth, the titular stag which represents a link to the otherworld, and the Green Man, who symbolises rebirth and the cycles of nature. Benjamin explains how Stephen Jon Cooper brought a new character into the mix: ‘Long Tongue’, a malicious looking masked figure who, during the winter chapter, spars with the Green Man and chops off his head.
The imagery verges on folk-horror, but Benjamin rejects this classification. “People do associate that kind of 16mm film language with horror, because that’s what we’ve got used to within cinema history, but for me it’s closer to a memory or a dream.” He goes on to suggest the films are instead “a warning to people as to what might happen - essentially, from our misuse and abuse of the planet.”
While A.I. begins to infiltrate our artforms and erase the vitally important creative journey, Hart of the Wood brings as much beauty to the process as the product. But that doesn’t mean that the project rejects the use of technology. Built into the kinetoscopes is the ability to log how many people have viewed the films; an audience of over 100,000 was recorded at Comer Woods and a further 10,000 in the first three months at Newstead.
“The world is not built to show films of some forms, so you have to present it in a certain way,” Benjamin explains. “We’ve reached people who would never normally see this kind of strange, experimental film. If we were to get a cinema release we’d never be getting that number of people watching it.”
While cinemas provide modern comforts and flashy high definition blockbusters, step into the rabbit holes (or kinetoscopes) of our woodlands and there is a more quiet wonder to be found. Something both tangible and ephemeral, ancient and fleeting, and something with perhaps more heart.
Hart of the Wood can be seen at Newstead Abbey until 2026. newsteadabbey.org.uk
words: CJ DeBarra illustration: Rebecca Leivers
Out of Time: The Curious Case of the Body in Room No.24
It's not every day that police officers turn to psychics to help with their more mysterious cases, but one such case at the County Hotel left them with no choice…
Many will remember the County Hotel, a sweeping, whitefronted hotel on Theatre Square. The hotel had opened its doors in 1867 as The Clarendon Hotel before being renamed. The landmark Victorian Hotel had been known for glamour as it welcomed stars like Agatha Christie in 1952, but by the 1970s, it was facing demolition.
In November 1969, the hotel was involved in a case so strange that a national enquiry was launched.
That afternoon, a woman calling herself Enid L. Johnson phoned the receptionists, saying she was calling from Peterborough about a room for the night. Fifteen minutes later, a taxi dropped her off outside and she checked in, giving her name, then her address as no.8, Park Road.
Enid was about 55 years old, of a medium build with shoulderlength hair and blue-grey eyes. She was quite petite and dressed neatly in a brown, black and beige mottled swagger coat - a style that was fashionable in the 1930s, characterised by its pyramid shape. Under the coat, she wore a two-piece suit with a navy and turquoise herringbone pattern. She carried a handbag and used spectacles to read the paperwork at the desk.
Eighteen hours later, chambermaids about to clean room no.24, found her body amid tablets and a bottle of whiskey. Panicked, they called the police, who, when sweeping the room, made a strange discovery - she had absolutely no identification on her. Even stranger, all of her clothing had had the tags cut out and tie on tags added that read: Enid L. Johnson.
She had even added the tags to many of the contents of her handbag. Police in Peterborough were alerted and called to Park Road, but it was soon discovered that no one living there knew Enid. All attempts to trace the name came back as unsuccessful. It seemed no one knew who this woman was or was connected to her in any way.
City Coroner Mr A.C.G.Rothera said, “This is one of the most astonishing cases that has been reported to me.” Police admitted to feeling “baffled” especially when the extensive searches came back with no information. They suspected that she had escaped from an institution or had lived alone, stating, “We gained the impression she had all her worldly belongings on her.”
As two months passed with no information, the police issued
a statement and launched a nationwide search. They also put out a request to taxi drivers to get in touch if they had given Enid a lift to the County from the train station, describing her appearance from the hotel’s account down to her freckles, manicured nails and faded tanned complexion.
That January, police tried a different tactic - they consulted a local spirit medium. They took boxes of her clothing, powder compact, jewellery such as a pearl necklace and engagement ring, and suitcases to the Radford home of Steve Tomlinson and his wife Winifred, after he offered to help identify the woman. He claimed to practice the art of psychometry, which involved holding objects and allowing them to tell him about a person’s past.
paniCKed, they CaLLed the poLiCe, who, when sweeping the room, made a strange disCoVery - she had absoLuteLy no identiFiCation on her
Tomlinson claimed to have been a spiritualist since 1933 and travelled all over England to give talks and presentations on the subject. He was known for attending a Long Eaton church ceremony, where afterwards a man who used a crutch claimed to have been healed. He had possibly come to the attention of the police through volunteering to help find a missing child in Clifton.
“I’ve had powers since I was a boy,” Mr Tomlinson told newspapers. “When I was thirteen, I had contact with my grandfather from ‘across’, but I never did anything about it.” He had gone to work in tobacco at the Player’s Factory before he retired. During the war, he had worked for the Royal Navy as a mine sweeper but claimed that seamen who sat near him were healed. “I healed one man’s torn neck ligaments just by touching his neck and praying.” He created a small bit of history by being one of the first to insist that the Navy record his religion as ‘spiritualism.’
Tomlinson sat in a dark room in his home, said a quick prayer, then picked up the items. After forty minutes of appearing to slip into a trance, he told police that he could see the woman was connected to the medical profession, had made a train journey before her death, she had a connection to a house in Mansfield with white railings, and she knew someone who had been killed in a plane crash while with the RAF. He added that she had been going through five years of
hell, the death had knocked her back, which had been too much for her to bear, and that her last name may have been Chapman. He also mentioned a pain in his left leg throughout the seance, as he believed she had a leg condition. Finally, he mentioned a yellow car and a bald-headed man.
The police were stunned. They had suspected that Enid had a connection with the medical profession but had not released the details publicly, so they were at a loss to describe how Tomlinson had known this.
A BBC special report was eventually named Enid. After watching the programme, a man living in Sussex came forward to say he believed he knew the woman but that her name was Doris Maud Pryor. He was her nephew. Police unearthed thirteen clues that confirmed her identity. However, by now, Doris had been buried, which made identifying her formally much more difficult.
In a visit to the flats she had lived in, her landlord told police that she hadn’t seen Doris in a while, but she had told her that she would be going to stay with a female friend in Bristol. She had been living in the city and working for the Red Cross.
Doris had handed over the keys not long after. Keys found in her handbag unlocked luggage found in the train station at Brighton, and dental records formally identified her. Her luggage also had the same tie on labels. Although curiously, she had told her landlady to keep any letters as she would return, but had asked the bank to stop her pension. Her doctor confirmed that apart from insomnia, she had been completely healthy. Police determined that she had taken her own life and her nephew sadly confirmed that the labels were likely her attempt not to cause any distress to her family. It’s not clear if the controversial police use of psychics stopped in that case, but Tomlinson was proved wrong.
The seventies saw the demolition of several well-known Nottingham hotels, starting with The Black Boy on Long Row in 1969/70. The Welbeck Hotel near Victoria Station followed in 1970 to make way for Victoria Centre, and finally, the County Hotel was also demolished in 1975. The demolition made way for the rumoured £1 million extension to the Theatre Royal, which today contains the new dressing rooms, stage door and offices. Time was called for the last time at the bar on November 1 1975, despite local attempts to save it through a petition signed by 1,000 people, which was handed to the Lord Mayor, Ivy Matthews.
NOTTS SHOTS
Want to have your work featured in Notts Shots? Send your high-res photos from around the city (including your full name and best web link) to photography@leftlion.co.uk or tag #nottsshots on Instagram.
Alotta Sun at St Ann's Allotments Andrew Walters
Attenborough's Land Harvey Tomlinson
Your
Pigeon for
Thoughts Jon Robson @Henkyrobson
Blue Skies Eloise Idoine
Enchanting Embankment Nick Archer @nickaarcphotography
Deer in the Water
Sarah Smith @sazzlesmith
going with the FLow
words: Caradoc Gayer
photos: Manuscripts and Special Collections
There’s an intriguing new exhibition to see at Lakeside Arts. Drawing on artefacts from the Trent River Authority Archives, it examines the history of the River Leen, making close links between industrialisation, climate change, and changes in north Notts communities. Dr Rachel Dishington, exhibition co-curator, tells us more about what we can learn from this history.
When it comes to our experiences with rivers in Notts, the River Trent will likely come to mind first. A lot of us go there to relax, whether we’re fishing, cycling or walking to Attenborough Nature Reserve, enjoying relaxing spots like Beeston Marina, or doing any number of other activities. It also closely relates to mercantile and industrial history in Nottingham. But how often do we think about southrunning tributary, the River Leen? For people living outside of the Annesley, Bulwell, and Basford areas, chances are, not quite as much. However, with an ongoing exhibition-showcase at Lakeside Arts, Dr Rachel Dishington and Dr David Beckingham want to change that in a subtle, but meaningful way.
Starting in the Robin Hood Hills, above Newstead Abbey, and joining the River Trent in the Meadows, the Leen has been subject to lots of changes through history; pollution when Nottingham industry started expanding, later more sustainable management, falling in-and-out of the use of private landowners, and innumerable other shifts in the figurative and literal Notts landscape.
it’s reaLLy interesting to use the riVer as a way oF interrogating questions about ownership and management oF L and and authority
For Rachel, this was a valuable story to tell – there’s complex conversations surrounding our country’s rivers, particularly as flood risks change with climate change and privatised water tends to incentivize pollution, so exhibitions like the one she’s co-curated are valuable for showing how things ‘used to be done’.
“It’s a story of changing relationships with the river over time, and changing ways of thinking about the river,” says Rachel. “It’s the river as an aesthetic, pretty thing. It’s the river as a source of drinking water, but also for industry, particularly bleaching and dyeing industries. It’s the river as a hazard – as a danger, that needs to be controlled, as a flood risk.”
Available to see in the main Lakeside Arts building, The Leen exhibition showcases archive materials from the Trent River Authority. It tracks the Leen’s history back to when Nottingham’s lace and cotton industries were in their nascent stages. Some interesting anecdotes emerged from this time, like a point in the late 18th century when cotton mills started being built near Papplewick. The family who owned these mills, the Robinsons, took the fifth Lord Byron to court when he started damming up the lake he owned at Newstead Abbey to hinder their use of the River Leen.
“It’s really interesting to use the river as a way of interrogating questions about ownership and management of land and authority,” says Rachel. “It naturally challenges the idea that you’re in control of your bit of territory, because fundamentally the river is running through not only your piece, but everyone else’s piece as well. It’s an interesting natural artefact that forces people to work across organisational lines.”
One lesson to learn from the River Leen’s history is that community or local government interventions are integral in preventing serious harm to bodies of water. From the late 18th to mid 19th centuries, Nottingham’s lace industry allowed
the city to economically grow at a huge rate. Eventually interventions were needed when locales for dyeing lace, spanning Basford to Radford, started contaminating the water with bleach-work refuse.
As the 20th century approached, local government in Notts gradually started realising that a larger, organisational body would need to take care of the river. Hundreds of landowners couldn’t be relied upon to do so, not least because coordinating them would be pretty much impossible.
“The problem with rivers is that if you do something in one place, it has a knock on effect for every other place on that river,” says Rachel. “If you’re trying to reduce flood risk, for example, you have to do a riverscape approach – going from the source to the bottom, and thinking about the whole thing. Otherwise you’re going to do flood defenses in your little stretch and that’s going to cause it to flood in the guy next door’s house, factory, or cause problems upstream.”
Through the first half of the 20th century, silt and debris, plus other surface level water, entered the River Leen as Nottingham continued to urbanise. This would cause a pretty devastating degree of flooding – through 1960 the Leen flooded roughly 150 properties.
Responding to this, in the 1960s, the Leen Improvement Scheme diverted the river, fixing it with steel pilings and flood walls, which would immeasurably decrease the flooding risk. These were under the control of a legislative body, and today they’re looked after by the Environment Agency. This was a pretty valuable and unique development, turning the river into one collective responsibility, rather than the responsibility of lots of individual landowners who didn’t really have the capacity to work together.
Learning about this – how the river was made as safe as it is today by individuals, was one of the most fulfilling parts of the project for Rachel.
“When you’re thinking about a river, it’s easy to lose the fact that this is a part of people’s lives, and tell the story of a river as an inanimate object that is cut off from its communities,” she says. “So I think some of the most exciting parts for me were the photographs of the people who were in the process of working – either the engineers working in the Leen improvement scheme, or great photographs of soap factory workers from Gerard’s.”
And what about this history’s relevance today? Could it have lots of relevance for modern debates about climate change and rivers – like the potential nationalisation of our water? That’s beyond the scope of Rachel’s research, but she still hopes that the artefacts on display will spark lots of thoughts in curious minds, encouraging us to tackle modern problems with regard to history.
“I think it’s really important for us, when we’re thinking about managing water in the future, that we are informed about how it was managed in the past – that the people making these decisions are aware of these legacies,” says Rachel, adding, “ in addition to the physical management of the river there’s also the political management – who’s been responsible for the management, how it was funded… so if the exhibition provokes those conversations, then we’re satisfied.”
The Leen exhibition is showcased at Lakeside Arts, University Park Campus, NG7 2RD, until 15 March 2026.
interview: Reuben Moynihan-Case photos: Natalie Owen
Luca Sheldon and Jordan Kelsall are the two local players on the 25/26 Nottingham Panthers roster. We sat down with them to explore what it means to wear the Panthers jersey, as Nottingham lads, and how they’re feeling about the 2025/26 campaign.
What do you remember about the moment you were first called up to the Panthers roster?
Luca: My first time was just before COVID, and I was working a, quote unquote, ‘real job’ at the job centre in town. I remember they rang me saying one of the goalies was injured, so they wanted me to go down and train to see if I could maybe back up for a game. It was pretty exciting. I remember I ran around the office screaming!
Jordan: I was seventeen and playing in Swindon actually, I’d moved down there to play, and I remember my Dad telling me that Corey Neilson, who was the coach as the time, asked if I would come up and do a couple days of practice with the team, so he could see if I was any good. Me and another lad came up for practice; I had a really good two days and a few weeks later I signed.
As someone born and raised in Nottingham, what does it mean to you to wear the Panthers jersey and be the home team at the National Ice Centre: one of the best facilities in the country?
Jordan: It's really good. I've played at other places in the league and elsewhere but to play in Nottingham is special because our families are here – it’s our home. Not many people in the ice hockey world have the chance to play for a living, and also where they’re from! I definitely don’t take it for granted. Our crowds have been through the roof, it’s definitely one of the best atmospheres in the league. We’re really lucky to play here because not everyone is as privileged as we are with the facilities that we have. We don’t take it for granted. Everyone likes coming to play here
Luca: My dad has been a Panthers fan his whole life and I think I went to my first game when I was six months old. I guess growing up lots of kids dream of playing football for whoever; I always wanted to play hockey for the Panthers. It's pretty unbelievable that it's now a reality! There's some places in the country you could go that wouldn't be as fun as coming here every morning. I think we're very lucky to be able to come to these facilities.
As Nottingham lads who came through the local system, how important is it to you to inspire more kids from the city to pick up a stick and get on the ice?
Luca: I think it's massively important, even just as I started playing as a kid, I think the exposure and a lot more people seem to know about the Panthers and ice hockey in general, I think we need to keep that trend going and get as many Brits as we can in the league. Yeah, I think that's greatly important.
Jordan: I would agree, whilst it's come a long way, there is still so much we can do. I don't truly think we do enough to try and get people into the sport. It's really difficult with funding and everything. We're not an Olympic sport yet. Compared to other sports, obviously, kids can easily get a football or, quite easily play cricket, tennis, or all the rest of it. Ice hockey is quite a big financial commitment, but the more we can get people even coming to watch a game and getting them interested that way, the better!
our Crowds haVe been through the rooF, it’s deFiniteLy one oF the best atmospheres in the League. we’re reaLLy LuCKy to pL ay here beCause not e Veryone is as priViLeged as we are with the FaCiLities that we haVe. we don’t taKe it For granted what's new pussyCat?
Jordan, this is your eighth season at home, not many get to be both local and long-tenured - what’s kept you in Nottingham? And can you talk to us about your involvement with the club off the ice?
Jordan: Yeah, I've been here a while now, it makes me feel old, but it's a really good fit for me. I'm really happy with what I've got going on and it doesn't mean I don't want to get better. I'm still trying to improve obviously every day, but to be at home, along with the facilities, and the team that's in contention to win every trophy, every year… I don't really see the need to change that. Two years ago I was offered the chance to join the backroom team too, which involves expanding their commercial partners, and getting the community involved. I run a programme with Adam Goodbridge which focuses on giving clubs, schools and charities a chance to come down and watch us for a reduced price. Every time they come down, they raise money for their own football, tennis, rugby club, you name it. We have, I think, ninety different organisations and it's only growing! It's an initiative we've tried to help grow the game in the UK because most kids have probably never been to an ice rink.
Luca, not only are you the ‘Most Entertaining Character’ on the team, according to teammate Chase Pearson, you’re also the ‘Most Entertaining Player’ on the ice, voted by the fans last season. How important is it to you to be that kind of presence – someone who lifts the organisation and connects with supporters too?
Luca: Well, I mean, without pumping my own tyres too much, I think it is an important role. I'm under no illusion – I'm not going to be, especially this season, the starting netminder making the saves every weekend. My role is to kind of be a character and sort of keep the boys together. I guess it's not easy being this funny all the time, eh? But seriously, I know I've said I'm not going to be starting, but I've still got to put the work in during the week. I don't want people to have this idea that all I do is just mess around. Sometimes I do hard work as well.
Jordan: He really brings everyone together and that shouldn't be undervalued. I call it the hardest job in hockey, we go to some tough rinks and Luca keeps everyone together.
Talk to us about winning the playoffs last season…
Luca: I don't even know where to start! I think that's probably up there with one of the best weekends of my life. I’ve supported [Panthers] my whole life, so being in the team that won is surreal and it makes it even better that it was against Sheffield. I'm so happy we beat them, I can't describe it. That was awesome!
Jordan: It was great. Obviously loads of fun, and great emotions when we won, but I've also played here when we've finished 5th, 6th, 7th, or not made finals. Like Lucas said, I grew up watching the team as well and I saw the team winning every single year and I hadn't had that experience yet. We won the elite series, but that's kind of different. To actually win a regular season trophy, kind of felt like the work you're putting in over the years – that's a reward for it. I didn't want to finish my career having played for the team and not won anything, so the fact that we did it was just amazing.
And what are the team’s hopes for this season?
Luca: I think we want to get as many trophies as we can. That's what we're all looking towards and going after!
Jordan: I would agree, we've got all the pieces, but every team league is good. It's a long season. What happens now doesn't necessarily define it, but on the other hand, if we have a really bad start it's going to really hinder us for the rest of the year. It's just about trying to win as many games as we can at the start, then build on it.
Through November catch Nottingham Panthers play against Manchester Storm, Sheffield Steelers and Glasgow Clan. Head to their website below for dates and tickets.
nottinghampanthers.tv
A traditional British Butchers, based in the heart of Nottingham.
Planning an epic Christmas feast? We offer locally sourced turkeys, turkey crowns, pigs in blankets, sausages, cheeses, beef, lamb, pork pies and much more. Reserve yours with us now for collection just before the holidays.
17 Freckingham Street, Sneinton, ng1 1dq dungerharvey@hotmail.com, 07783474431 @harveySFarmShop
Whether it’s a Christmas get together with family & friends or a work Christmas party we have plenty of options. From tables of 8-15 for our set menu or private hire for 20-32 people, get in touch for more details.
1A Cannon Court, Nottingham, NG1 6JE www.piccalillinottingham.co.uk info@piccalillinottingham.co.uk 0115 648 6498
a Cup oF jim
After 35 years of roasting and supplying coffee to some of Nottingham’s best-loved independent businesses, there’s not much Jim Lee (owner of Lee & Fletcher) doesn’t know about a cup of joe. Lucy Campion finds out more about Jim’s journey in the world of java.
In 1990, Jim Lee re-routed his career path and built a coffee roastery from scratch. Today Lee & Fletcher supplies an impressive list of local businesses.
When we meet, Jim has an americano while I order a latte. Aware that I’m in the presence of a connoisseur, I feel self-conscious but I needn’t.
“I’m not against people putting milk in coffee,” Jim says. “I attended a course at the International Coffee Organisation in London, where a woman said, ‘There’s a lot of snobbery in tea, but coffee’s not like that - if you like a certain coffee, that’s the best one,’ and I agree entirely.”
Having experienced many a side-eye in cool coffee shops after asking for syrup, I’m surprised to hear this refreshing take. Jim adds: “Snobbery has crept into the coffee scene in recent years but I don’t see any justification for that. If you like your coffee a certain way, drink it!”
Eager to hear some expert recommendations, I ask Jim for his favourite coffees. “A good, state-grown Papua New Guinea, which you can try at Hemisphere (West Bridgford). It’s sweet and intense without
oF Champions
being too harsh. Wild Ethiopian coffee has a nice kick. For middle-of-the-road coffee, you can’t beat a Colombian or Costa Rican.”
Jim has supplied single origin coffees since the early 1990s, before they became fashionable. “There wasn’t the same level of interest then, but we were doing Colombian, Kenyan and Costa Rican. Nowadays coffees can be sourced from a single state, with a specific sub-species of arabica.”
When I comment that he was ahead of the curve, Jim smiles. “As much as I’d like to claim credit, it was entirely by chance. We started with six to eight different coffees, now we have sixty.” Lee & Fletcher has also developed a reputation for distinctive custom blends. “People like to have something different. No.8 Deli has a particularly memorable custom blend. They wanted something you couldn’t get elsewhere, even if it meant some people wouldn’t like it. The result was strong and spicy.”
When asked what’s changed most in the industry, Jim says: “Originally, most coffee shops had a filter machine and didn’t understand how to look after coffee. There’s still a stigma surrounding filter coffee
We went to Sherwood to visit Brontë & Co for a most exquisite breakfast platter…
Along with the nearby Woodthorpe Park and variety of charity shops, Sherwood has a great selection of breakfast spots and cafes to choose from. But if you are looking for something a little different to the usual fry ups and pancakes, Brontë & Co is your place.
With an expansion in 2024, this cafe-restaurant now has an airy atmosphere – exposed brick walls contrasting with comfy seating and cushions. In the summer, the back room has a ceiling that opens up, and a lovely little sun terrace, but for this visit in late October I got a snug seat by the window, perfect for watching the bustle of Sherwood pass by.
What has kept me returning to Brontë is the diverse menu, which has dozens of options to accommodate any taste or dietary requirement, making dining out here with carnivorous or gluten-free friends easy. Alongside familiar favourites is a delicious range of Turkish recipes, which I highly recommend if you want to be a little more adventurous.
Dishes like kasap koftë, chicken/ veggie chökertme, and Turkish cilbir eggs are brightened with yogurts, harissa flavours, and fresh side salads. As a vegetarian, in the summer I often opt for the khöbez flatbread topped plentifully with a beautiful salad and soft halloumi. In the colder days, both the menemen and shakshuka bring inner warmth. I’ve also enjoyed making both at home, after enjoying them at Brontë.
Today, I opted for the impressive Turkish breakfast (£14.50 veggie/£13.50 meaty), which is the perfect choice if you’re more of a grazer. Providing some comforting staples like scrambled eggs, hash brown, halloumi, veggie sausage, mushrooms and spinach fried in garlic, and a mouthwateringly delicious sigara boregi pastry – the meat version comes with Turkish beef sucuk sausage, salami, and sausage. To top it off, you get a serving of fresh bread, honey and jam, a succulent salad, a selection of cheeses, half a
so some shops have rebranded it as drip coffee –same concept with a free-standing filter.”
“In the nineties, very few people had a Nespresso machine and it only made espressos, americanos, cappuccinos and lattes. Now there are flat whites, long blacks, cortados, and different milks and syrups too.”
So what’s the secret to Lee & Fletcher’s longevity? “We don’t sell on price, we sell on quality. Also, I like to know my customers – business is about relationships.”
And Jim’s top three city centre coffee spots? “Biscuit and Brew for the chilled atmosphere; Delilah for the range of choice and monthly specials; and Chocolate Utopia because you get a free chocolate with your coffee!”
leeandfletcher.co.uk
strenuous rummage through the charity shops.
Brontë & Co is open daily 9am-5pm (4pm Sundays, 10pm on Fridays/Saturdays). They also accommodate large group bookings, so give them a call to discuss your dining needs.
bronteco.co.uk
words: Lucy Campion illustration: Lily Keogh
words & photo: Sophie Gargett
As we head into autumn the season of traditional British roast dinners is upon us. Here we’ve picked out eight of our favourite city centre spots to hide away for a feast with your friends and family…
The Angel Microbrewery
A great pub offering great choices for veggies and vegans; yes you can actually choose between a seitan or lentil and seed roast. Plus there’s also beef and chicken for the carnivores. All options come with both roast and mashed potatoes, mixed greens, roasted root veg, red cabbage, a Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. Priced between £14.95 - £15.95.
7 Stoney Street, NG1 1LG
The Castle Pub
A lovely traditional hideaway opposite Nottingham Castle. Choose from roast beef, lemon and thyme chicken, or slow-roasted pork (with veggie and vegan options available too). All options come with Yorkshire puddings, both roast and mashed potatoes, red cabbage, vegetables and gravy. £18.95 - £20.95 for the main or £24.95 with an added starter or dessert.
1 Castle Road, NG1 6AA
Fothergills
Named after Nottingham’s greatest architect Watson Fothergill. Mains include garlic and thyme chicken, pork belly and crackling, roast beef, slow roasted lamb shank and vegetarian wellington. Everything comes with a Yorkshire pud, roasties, red cabbage, mash, seasonal veg, stuffing and gravy. All priced between £19 - £26.
5-7 Castle Road, NG1 6AA
The Malt Cross Fancy Sunday lunch in a former Victorian music hall? Choose from beef rump, chicken supreme, pork belly or a chestnut and mushroom wellington. All come served with roast potatoes, seasonal veg, carrot and swede mash, giant Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, stuffing and gravy.
16 St James's Street, NG1 6FG
From the KitChen
with Cameron KibbLe, head CheF at taquero
When did you first know you wanted to make food for a living?
After I had finished my college course studying business administration at 19, I needed to find a job. A friend helped to organise a trial shift in a pub for me, and I knew this was what I wanted to do. I've never looked back since.
What person has been the biggest influence on your cooking and why?
Jacque, the Executive Head Chef and one of the owners at Bar Iberico. Bar Iberico was one of my go-to restaurants, and getting the opportunity to work and learn under him was the best thing I've done for my career.
What's the best-selling item on your current menu and why?
Beef Birria Taco. Spicy beef, gooey cheese, crispy shell - what more can I say!
What/where was the best meal you have ever cooked?
Staff meal for the guys on Saturday. Smoked ribs, mac 'n' cheese, chips and slaw. Saturdays are a long, busy day, so we always try to cook something tasty for the staff.
What/where was the best meal you have ever eaten? And who cooked it?
River Cottage Canteen in Plymouth - it was just a simple mackerel salad dish. Everything sourced locally, and possibly the tastiest mackerel I’ve ever had.
Other than your own place, where do you eat out most in Notts?
Got to be Kushi-ya for going out, or Slice ‘n’ Brew for a takeaway.
Who are your five ideal dinner party guests alive or dead? And what’s on the menu?
Karl Pilkington, Matt Berry, John Cena, Richard Ford and Sean Lock. Wine, cheese and charcuterie - I love a little cold spread for a social dinner. There'd be olives, pickles, catalan bread, fresh bread, hummus, cheese, cured meats, a little salad and LOTS of wine.
Visit Taquero at 6-8 Heathcoat St, Nottingham NG1 3AA taquero.co.uk
Magic Garden
Known as Nottingham's 'biggest secret', because of its roomy interior and discrete exterior. On Sundays the Magic Garden offers two courses and a drink from £21.99. Choose from roast beef, chicken or pork with plant-based options also available. Plus regularly changing starters and desserts.
24-26 Low Pavement, NG1 7DL
Piccallili
This charming British European restaurant is situated on the former site of KushiYa and Alley Cafe and made it into the Michelin Guide this year. Choose from topside of beef, braised pork belly or faux lamb. All come with roasties, a Yorkshire, hispi cabbage, celeriac purée and gravy. Priced between £18-20.
1a Cannon Court, Long Row West, NG1 6JE
Queen of Hockley
By night a lively bar, but by day a classy food joint. Choose from roasted sirloin, pan roasted chicken or a nut roast. Everything comes served with roast potatoes and carrots, buttered greens, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pud and gravy. All priced at £16.95 each, £22.95 for two courses or £27.95 for three courses.
7 Broad Street, NG1 3AJ
Vat and Fiddle
The pub at the heart of Castle Rock Brewery, has a simple but value-packed Sunday offer. Choose from either beef, chicken or seitan and it comes with roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips, mashed swede, greens, stuffing, a Yorkshire and gravy at a bargain £12.95. Or check out their Yorkie wrap at £10.95 with most of that in wrap form.
12 Queensbridge Road, NG2 1NB
LiFe behind bars with matt hinton, owner at brew taVern
What's the best thing about your job?
Tell us something interesting about your pub…
We’re possibly the smallest pub in Nottingham city centre; I haven’t had my tape measure out, but we’re definitely the most convenient if you’re catching a train! The building dates back to Edwardian times and it was originally a cabman’s shelter in the times of horse drawn taxis. It then spent some time as a band practice room. We’ve got a black and white photo of the band on the wall kindly donated to us by a family member. It’s been a pub since 2018 and we took it on in March 2024.
Sampling all the incredible beers we get on and then boring customers with my knowledge about them.
What's your most expensive drink?
We had a £35 pint of American Imperial Stout on recently. Kinda mad how everyone measures in pints though isn't it? Maybe we should start measuring printer ink and insulin by the pint too. Give the ‘ow much!’ crowd a proper shock.
What's your personal favourite tipple?
Vinohradsky 11, an unfiltered Czech Lager that we serve through an authentic Lukr side pull tap with plenty of foam on top.
Who's the most famous person you've had drinking in your place?
Michael Portillo was filming outside recently for his railway journeys program. Does that count?
What's the best thing a customer has ever said to you?
We regularly get told that our bass is the best they’ve tasted in years.
How would you persuade someone who's never visited your bar to entice them in?
Do you like incredible beer, cider, wine and spirits? Ever drunk them in a shed? Look no further.
exhibition re View: quiVer
words: Finnuala Brett
photos: Nick Dunmur
Kate MccGwire's latest solo exhibition, Quiver, is a powerful overview of 25 years' worth of work. Typically, it does not shy away from the uncomfortable. Bulging, writhing and rippling through more than three rooms at the Lakeside Arts Centre, Quiver is a body of sculptural work made alive through the dualities MccGwire is fascinated with: the potent beauty of the natural world, and its powerful, sometimes grotesque underbelly…
MccGwire’s work is almost entirely constructed with feathers, painstakingly sorted, cleaned, and arranged by hand. In the first room of the exhibition, sculptures of crow, pheasant, rooster and pigeon feathers ripple like the surface of water, coil in serpentine knots and spout from the walls. The effect is as slippery and double-sided as the shifting light on iridescent plumage; startlingly compelling and delicate, yet charged with what the catalogue accurately describes as a ‘vital animal presence’.
The room beyond, glimpsed first through an open archway, contains the writhing shape of GYRE, two trunk-like feathered coils protruding from the wall and intertwining across the space. In the last room, smaller pieces are contained – as if artefacts in a taxidermy collection – inside bell jars and extruding frames. Many have the hypnotic delicacy of spiders’ threads.
MccGwire credits her upbringing in the Norfolk Broads as a distinct influence on her work’s themes; the imagery of serpentine waterways, wildlife and, notably, natural cycles of life and decay, are pervasive. Visceral and alive, the pieces evoke intense bodily and emotional reactions. They deliberately occupy an uncanny space between the animal, primal and more-than-human world. Though ethically sourced, the feathers making up the artworks
seem to contain forceful echoes of the live bodies they came from, made yet more potent by these bodies' physical absence from the exhibition space. TORSION – recurring as an important motif throughout the exhibition – takes the knotted and coiled appearance of serpentine form, twisting in and out of itself. It reminds the viewer of amorphous life forms and sinuous muscle, yet glistens with iridescent greens and blues. The sculptures metamorphose from one being to another, not quite bird, neither snake, but perhaps something more supernatural – the natural beyond what we know, see, and expect.
Many of MccGwire's works, particularly the spiraling arrangements of feathers in the first room, are reminiscent of the land art movement beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike those works, these are removed from the outdoor settings they typically engaged with, and playfully adapted into a contained exhibition space. By bringing them into the human realm, MccGwire’s adaptation draws out their subtle tensions: between power and submission, the human realm and the nonhuman.
The exhibition plays on aesthetics of the sublime; that which is outside our understanding and therefore something we fear. Like the almost-violently protruding
coils of GYRE, many of the pieces feel confrontational. Some of the smaller pieces in the third room mimic animal hides hung on butchers’ walls - from real, gleaming blades - with a hypnotic macabre.
MccGwire has an instinctive grasp for that latent power which lies beyond the human and is intertwined in this underbelly of the natural world. But she doesn't exercise this for the sole purpose of discomfort; rather, to encourage the viewer to question what it is exactly about our relationship with this world that makes us uncomfortable.
Without losing gracefulness, Quiver offers us glimpses into a natural world often ignored in favour of its prettier surface. Quiver reminds us that this world is insubordinate, uncontainable, larger than we are; it is this reality that stimulates the discomfort MccGwire brings to the fore. The exhibition is macabre at points, but also strikingly beautiful as it encourages us to take a closer and more honest look at nature. Quiver draws us closer to nature’s underbelly, beyond what we usually encounter, in its own twisting, powerful way.
See Quiver in Djanogly Gallery at Lakeside Arts Centre until Sunday 4 January 2026.
lakesidearts.org.uk
For this month’s Artworks, we hear from Anna Mylonas, a Notts-based silversmith who runs Nine Two Five Silver
Hello! I'm Anna, the founder and maker here at Nine Two Five Silver. I make affordable, sustainable, sterling silver jewellery by hand from my home studio in Mapperley.
Growing up in West Bridgford, I was a magpie in both the Notts County sense and in terms of an obsession for jewellery, and all things shiny, that started from a young age.
In 2018, I enrolled in the wonderful Nottingham Jewellery school to do a six-week beginners silversmith course as a hobby. This course was amazing, it unlocked all my creativity which, combined with my love of jewellery, gave me the ability to create my own pieces.
After completing more courses, I bought some basic tools and set up a little work bench in the corner of my kitchen. I stayed up till the early hours creating, learning, and making a right old mess. I made so much jewellery, even I couldn’t wear it all.
The threat of redundancy from my job as an anti-social behaviour officer in social housing, gave me the push I needed to create Nine Two Five Silver and I set up a proper studio at home and began to make jewellery to sell. Soon, I found stockists such as the beautiful Whittle and Wolf in Mapperley, and was invited to sell my jewellery at makers markets.
I wasn't made redundant in the end, but after a while of juggling full-time work, two young kids and my business, I quit anyway and took the leap into self-employment. I haven't looked back! I have been so grateful to see my business grow from hobby, to side hustle, to full-time dream job. That's mostly down to the support from the people of Nottingham.
‘Why Nine Two Five?’ I hear you ask! Well, it's not just an
amazing Dolly Parton song. You may have noticed that Sterling Silver is hallmarked with the numbers 925. This is because sterling silver is an alloy made up of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals. So, Nine Two Five is a play on words with a double meaning for me. I work exclusively with sterling silver and when I named my business, it was my dream to make it my 9 to 5 job.
I create geometric, lighthearted jewellery designs that become timeless, everyday favourites. I prioritise affordability and sustainability. Using recycled sterling silver ensures that even in these tricky times, everyone can find something they love in their budget.
I love nothing more than catching a glimpse of someone wearing something I have made whilst out and about in Notts. You can find me most weekends at makers markets around Nottingham. Favourites include The Stalls in West Bridgford, The Garage in Chilwell, the Sherwood Market and the Ruddington Market.
I am also super excited to be part of the It's in Nottingham Christmas Market at Nottingham Castle again this year. It runs from 28 - 30 November, and it promises to be another amazingly festive event packed with local talent, music and food.
You can also come and find me at the brilliantly vibrant, Sherwood Makers Christmas Market, in Woodthorpe Park, from 22-23 November. See my Instagram page for a full line up of markets and events I’ll be at this winter. The people of Notts always show us small businesses and makers such amazing support. I am so grateful and proud to be part of this city!
nine-two-five.co.uk
goth & souL
interview: Sophie Gargett photo: Seanen Middleton
With a darkly romantic sound and alluring stage presence, Hurtsfall have made their name as one of Nottingham’s best goth bands in recent years. We spoke to frontman Sam Harrison Emm to hear about the local goth scene, personal style and the literary and film inspirations behind their music…
Tell us more about your journey to becoming a musician… How did the current iteration of your band come together?
I’ve been in bands since I was thirteen. When I was in secondary school, some guys were putting together a band and they needed a singer. There were a lot of guitarists and drummers back then but not many boys wanted to sing. I was always singing so they gave me a chance.
I had no idea what I was doing so I imitated singers they looked up to. I wasn’t great, but I improved quickly and fell in love with performing. I also had to learn to write my own lyrics and vocal melodies without being able to read music, which I think is pretty impressive!
I changed bands a few times as life went on, I remember auditioning a lot. Then I was moving from London to Nottingham and saw an advert on the website Join My Band for a group called Hurtsfall. I liked the name instantly. I heard a few demos which they asked me to write to, and audition with. Mike and Jamie [the bandmates] had been in a band together already called The Death Notes and they were looking for a new singer. They narrowed it down to me and another person, had a vote, and the rest is history!
The Hurtsfall sound is deliciously dramatic. Is there any specific cinema and literature that particularly inspires your lyrics and sound?
I like your choice of words there. “Deliciously dramatic” does describe it perfectly. We’re all into film, and I studied English Literature at university, so those influences can be heard in the lyrics and sound for sure. As I handle the lyrics, and have a particular fondness for vampire media, vampires do appear in our music.
Lost Souls (Driving at Night) is based on the Poppy Z Brite 90s novel Lost Souls I think we capture the feeling of the book. Our most listened to track – 12 Long Years – includes different vampire tales in each of the verses: from The Lost Boys, to Elizabeth Bathory, to a Lestat inspired figure at the end. Lord Byron makes the occasional appearance in our work too.
12 Long Years has quite a Sisters of Mercy vibe to it, while Robert Smith’s Eyes is obviously dedicated to the Godfather of Goth… Can you tell us a few of your musical inspirations past and present?
The Sisters of Mercy vibe was intentional! Most of our songs are quite different to each other. I like that variety as I feel there’s something for everyone at our shows. We were more inspired by The Cure and Joy Division when we started out. We’ve evolved into more of a synth sound now, more like Depeche Mode or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. There are odd songs (or bits of songs) that will remind you of other bands, but I don’t think anyone sounds quite like us. We’ve been called ‘goth & soul’ by multiple unrelated people, so we just say that now!
The goth scene dwindled throughout the 2010s, but there seems to be a resurgence in popularity recently with younger people dabbling in the darkness. What do you think of the more modern goth culture, music and the ideology? I was just thinking about this the other day. I remember being genuinely concerned the goth scene was going to disappear. But recently it’s just started booming again, especially with younger people. There’s a couple of local Nottingham goth nights, Spellbound and Requiem, and it’s great to see them busy. If I had to guess, there’s an authenticity to goth which people are craving in such a fast-paced and largely superficial world. It cuts through in the same way the colour black cuts through a crowd of colour. Maybe it’s because the scene is undead so will never really die, just wither and thrive in cycles.
You have a distinctive look as a band. Why do you think it's so important within the goth scene to express yourself through personal style?
Personal style is very important on the goth scene. It’s a way to signal to others that you have something in common. I also think it’s important to look how you sound as a band. It helps people who might like your music to find you. I like the fact that all three of us dress slightly differently but are all somewhat alternative on stage. We dress in what makes us feel ourselves, which I’m sure feels the same for anyone who dresses outside of the norm.
The audience also wants a little drama. People don’t come to watch Hurtsfall for relatability, there are other artists you can go to for that. I always try to wear something that’s worth taking a picture of. On that note, I’ve had some wonderful pieces made at One BC (Sneinton Market) who do bespoke clothing, so would like to give them a shoutout.
there’s an authentiCity to goth whiCh peopLe are CraVing in suCh a Fast-paCed and L argeLy superFiCiaL worLd. it Cuts through in the same way the CoLour bL aCK Cuts through a Crowd oF CoLour. maybe it’s beCause the sCene is undead so wiLL ne Ver reaLLy die
You recently released a new single Adore Me, the lyric video for which has some exquisite underwater shots. Can you tell us about the process of filming this? We worked with a videographer to get the Adore Me lyric video as good as it could be. Nearly all of the shots (including the beautiful underwater scenes) are actually pieces of stock footage stitched together. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a video! We really wanted everything about this release to be bigger than anything we’d done before. So we pushed ourselves with the writing, production, artwork, video content, and promotion. I’m happy with the results. It’s become one of our signature songs.
What do you have coming up in the future?
Well we’re always working on new material. We’ve just announced we’re at Darker Days festival in Leicester next year with Salvation and Sweet Ermengarde headlining. We’ve also been working on our debut album for a long time now. We keep getting sidetracked with really good gig offers! But we are absolutely going to finish and release it. It’s coming together nicely. Being independent means we don’t have anyone putting pressure on us.
Anything else you’d like to tell LeftLion readers?
Please go out and support local artists and events. I’m not just saying this because I want you to come and see Hurtsfall. It’s a bleak time in the industry with venues closing up and down the country, and artists quitting. Nottingham is very fortunate to have the music scene that it has, but it will only continue to grow and thrive if you show up. Even more importantly it’s good for your spirit. There’s nothing quite like live music in my opinion. It can be ecstatic, moving, cathartic, and so much more. Music is oxygen so get out and take a deep breath.
Sprints
WED.12.NOV.25
ROCK CITY
TUE.11.NOV.25
Admiral Fallow
BODEGA
WED.12.NOV.25
namesbliss
BODEGA
WED.12.NOV.25
English Teacher
THU.13.NOV.25
The Northern Boys
TUE.18.NOV.25
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.21.NOV.25
Inspiral Carpets
FRI.21.NOV.25
Sprints
ROCK CITY
WED.12.NOV.25
Still Remains
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.13.NOV.25
English Teacher
ROCK CITY
THU.13.NOV.25
Night Swimming
BODEGA
SAT.15.NOV.25
The Subways
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.16.NOV.25
BC Camplight
ROCK CITY
SUN.16.NOV.25
Dea Matrona
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.16.NOV.25
His Lordship
BODEGA
SUN.16.NOV.25
Kean Kavanagh
ROUGH TRADE
TUE.18.NOV.25
Baxter Dury
ROCK CITY
TUE.18.NOV.25
Frankie &The Witch Fingers
BODEGA
TUE.18.NOV.25
The Northern Boys
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.18.NOV.25
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
METRONOME
WED.19.NOV.25
Drowning Pool & Spineshank
ROCK CITY
WED.19.NOV.25
JERUB
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.20.NOV.25
Juliet’s Not Dead
ROUGH TRADE
THU.20.NOV.25
The Celtic Social Club
BODEGA
FRI.21.NOV.25
Delilah Bon
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.21.NOV.25
Inspiral Carpets
ROCK CITY
SAT.22.NOV.25
Guide
SUN.23.NOV.25
Humour
BODEGA
SUN.23.NOV.25
These Wicked Rivers Present: The “Rock & Roll Odyssey Tour”
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.25.NOV.25
Betty Boo
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.25.NOV.25
Softcult
BODEGA
WED.26.NOV.25
LLNN & PUPIL SLICER
BODEGA
WED.26.NOV.25
Warmduscher
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.27.NOV.25
Home Counties
BODEGA
THU.27.NOV.25
PET NEEDS
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.28.NOV.25
OUT SOLD OUT
Conan
BODEGA
SAT.22.NOV.25
Tom McGuire & The Brassholes
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.23.NOV.25
Citizen Soldier
ROCK CITY
Black Water County
BODEGA
FRI.28.NOV.25
Chris Moyles 90s Hangover
THE PALAIS
FRI.28.NOV.25
Gong And HENGE
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.28.NOV.25
Kingfishr
ROCK CITY
SAT.29.NOV.25
Bored Marsh
BODEGA
SUN.30.NOV.25
Deafhaven
THE PALAIS
SUN.30.NOV.25
PINTGLASS
BODEGA
MON.01.DEC.25
Everything Everything
ROCK CITY
MON.01.DEC.25
FaceSoul
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.02.DEC.25
Ashley Henry
BODEGA
WED.03.DEC.25
Ruts DC
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.04.DEC.25
Jared James Nichols
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.04.DEC.25
Noble Jacks
ROCK CITY (BETA)
FRI.05.DEC.25
KEZ
BODEGA
FRI.28. NOV.25
Chris Moyles 90s Hangover
WED.26.NOV.25
Warmduscher
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.05.DEC.25
SOLD OUT
The Clause
RESCUE ROOMS
MON.01.DEC.25
Everything Everything ROCK CITY
Jared James Nichols
THU.04.DEC.25
RESCUE ROOMS
Paint By Numbers - porij, Bloodworm & My First Time
SUN.07.DEC.25 BODEGA
WED.10.DEC.25
If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our list of music writers or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at music@leftlion.co.uk
To listen to these tracks and more, check out the LeftLion channel on Spotify.
Parisa East Ungrateful Sometimes (Single)
Parisa East is an artist who has the wonderful ability to convey a meaningful message clearly in her music in a delicate feminine manner. The song is driven by gentle vocals and a percussive beat that reinforces the ideas being conveyed in the lyrics: being grateful for all the wonderful things in creation. No matter how bad things might be, there are always those little things that we encounter that might brighten up our day. This conscious lyricism is effortlessly carried along with laidback jazzy melodies and soulful vocals along with a sprinkling of 90s hip hop vibes. (Claire Spencer)
Cara Flynn
you're the pinnacle (Single)
It's an understated start to this song: a strummed guitar, hazy with folk patterns, but growing in confidence. But the sound is deceptively simple - the chords ringing out are beautifully structured and provide just the right level of support for Cara's thoughtful vocal when it arrives. "Oh could I ever let go when you're in my soul... like this." It's a love song, unpicking the complexities of flooding emotion to great effect, but through only a handful of cleverly selected words. That takes real, rare, skill. (Phil Taylor)
Dekker Neither Up Nor Down (Album)
This is a remarkable, unmissable, album of great depth and feeling. In a similar wheelhouse as Bon Iver, the slightly jaunty, upbeat acoustic-led music and the frequently downbeat, introspective lyrics coalesce to create a beautifully complete overview of lived experience. Just as in reality, your focus can be drawn to any of the individual moods presented by Dekker and an appropriate reaction will be elicited. But, like life, these disparate, often conflicting feelings should all be acknowledged as vital parts of the wider whole. This isn’t a happy album that happens to have deep lyrics; it’s a rich, dense LP where the happiness of the music acts as a joyful counter-balance to the weighty subjects being confronted.
(Kieran Lister)
Molly Godber Astronaut (Single)
Atop a gently strummed acoustic guitar, Molly Godber - her remarkable voice rich with vibrato and a little careworn - is utterly hypnotic as she showcases her storytelling gift. Astronaut is a song voicing the fears of being left behind and the pressures of a world which is hyper-competitive. Godber describes beautifully the mixed emotions of seeing your peers moving on to ‘other worlds,’ alluding to how witnessing that progress can be reflected inward, bringing the curse of comparison. In the last verse, the lyrics come to rest on kindness to oneself. “It’s OK to be here now,” she sings, in a fitting end to a quietly moving, smartly layered and deeply relatable piece of songwriting. (Kieran Lister)
A project more than a decade in the making, Nottingham emo rockers George Gadd + The Aftermath have finally released their debut album – and it’s a beauty. Collecting together songs from across their career so far and reworking some fanfavourite older singles with Phil Booth of JT Soar down in Wales, it pulls together into a cohesive, emotionally charged listen, tailor made for the autumn season. From the triumphant opening horns of Square One and shuffling instrumentation of Sycamore, the positive energy of The Optimist, to the pain and heartbreak of album highlights Little Bird and Leo, it’s a record that will warm your soul on these colder nights. (Karl Blakesley)
George Gadd + The Aftermath Too Many Ghosts (Album)
December
January
buiLding bridges
Whether you’re a student, international or otherwise, new to the city, and looking to make connections with people in the same boat as you, or if you’re an established Notts resident who likes the idea of broadening your cultural horizons, the Nottingham Cultural Exchange is bound to do something for you. Since 2019, the meetup group has provided a welcoming opportunity to share your respective language and culture (with a drink in hand, of course, if you so choose). With its current home being Juicebar on High Pavement, the event has only grown in popularity – Riya Pereira met the organizers…
Moving to a new city or even a new country can be daunting, overwhelming and at times lonely. Kyriaki, who arrived in Notts as a bright-eyed young professional, knows that feeling all too well.
It was during her search for new friends that she stumbled across the Nottingham Cultural Exchange – a space that celebrates languages, shares cultures and brings people together. What began in 2019 with just a handful of people in a city centre bar has since grown into a welcoming community of over twenty people.
Recently celebrating its fourth birthday, the Nottingham Cultural Exchange is a “vibrant and multicultural” home away from home for students, expats and locals alike. “I first got involved about two and a half years ago,” Kyriaki says. “I was new to the city and was just looking for ways to make friends. I’m very, very thankful for finding it because that’s where I found all my friends.”
Today, Kyriaki (or Kyria as she’s fondly called) is one of a rotating team of six to seven hosts present every Thursday evening at JuiceBar – a cosy and cute bar in the city centre. The team makes a point of greeting newcomers, asking them what languages they’re interested in and making introductions to the right people to help break the ice. “It’s really nice and promising when people keep coming back,” she says.
One of the hosts, Emma, is a language graduate who was looking to keep her Spanish and Italian sharp and would spend a large part of her week visiting the many different language groups scattered across the city.
“It was nice going to them, but it took a lot of time out of my week,” she explains. “No one really in my circle of friends and family really studied languages.”
Having returned to Nottingham after studying in Manchester, she was looking for ways to continue practising her languages. She was intrigued by the exchange started by Yuri, a staff member at Pepper Rocks who helped host the first event –just five or ten people chatting over drinks.
After a few weeks, Yuri asked if Emma would help him host. Eventually, he moved to Berlin, and Emma took it over from him. “That was from around September or October 2019 until everything shut down for lockdown in early 2020.”
Post lockdown, Emma found herself missing the community deeply. She reached out to Pepper Rocks, and they suggested relocating the event to JuiceBar. When she started hosting again, Emma tried to make sure each session had a purpose beyond just language practice.
“I tried to make sure there was a theme so you weren’t just introducing yourself
every week.” These themes now form the backbone of the exchange’s gradual change in identity from simply a language exchange to a cultural exchange – from nights celebrating Chinese New Year or Brazil’s Festa Junina, to origami evenings, Persian and Greek nights with dance and traditional food, and even Korean karaoke sessions, to name a few.
“We’ve had a lot of Peruvians lately, so we did a Peruvian night,” Kyria says. “We really try to look at who’s coming and tailor evenings to what they’d enjoy.” These themed nights are a great icebreaker, especially for newcomers who might be shy.
the idea is haVing somewhere just to share not just L anguages but CuLture and diFFerent perspeCtiVes in a saFe enVironment
What makes the Nottingham Cultural Exchange stand out is its warmth and inclusiveness. The crowd ranges from eighteen-year-olds to mums in their 50s. Most attendees are working professionals or students, often new to the city and looking to connect. For some, it’s become a vital social lifeline.
“With mental health being such a big issue, it’s a good space for people to socialise,” says Kyria. “It reminds you how nice people can be. People who naturally come here are people who want to challenge themselves, learn new cultures, and broaden their horizons.”
The exchange has also left a personal impact on both of its hosts. “It definitely improved my cultural agility,” Kyria adds with a laugh. “I’m an international person, so the amount of times I’ve had people correct me [on how to phrase things] or like [explaining to others that] if an Italian person is talking loudly, they’re not angry, that’s just how they speak!”
While there are no current plans to expand to other cities, the Nottingham Cultural Exchange continues to grow organically within the city through word of mouth.
“I think a cultural exchange really enriches a city,” says Kyria. “Nottingham is such an international city with the number of international students. It’s important to have spaces like this as a safe space.”
“The idea is having somewhere just to share not just languages but culture,” says Emma, adding, “and different perspectives in a safe environment.”
The Nottingham Cultural Exchange takes place every Thursday, 7pm at Juicebar, Lower Parliament Street, NG1 3DA.
words: Riya Pereira photo: Kyriaki Protopapa
Reasons to be Cheerful
words: Caradoc Gayer
The news is normally negative, but here’s some good things that have happened recently in Notts…
Spreading the
love
At the start of October, signs reading ‘we are welcoming’ and ‘we are kind’ replaced a set of St George’s Flags placed on lamp posts down the stretch of Mansfield Road passing the Forest Recreation Ground. Midway through the month they were sadly defaced with yet more St George’s Crosses, but the sentiment still did the Nottingham community proud. We’re a proudly multicultural city, after all, and it doesn’t cost anything to not erect signage that will make lots of Notts people feel threatened and uncomfortable.
The big nine-oh Lenton’s well-loved art deco cinema The Savoy is celebrating ninety whole years of spreading movie magic in Nottingham, marking its status as our city’s oldest operating cinema. First opening its doors in November 1935, it has had a long and successful history, including as a set for the 1960s film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. In the week leading up to the anniversary itself, on Friday 7 November, the Savoy team will be celebrating in various ways, with £3 screenings of Dirty Dancing and Back to the Future, a year’s free cinema pass raffle, and other events. For more info head to their website: savoyonline.co.uk.
Getting green fingers
Facilitated by local social enterprise Grow Notts, a community event called Wild About Sneinton took place at the end of October. It was a huge success, bringing together people from across Notts to transform green spaces across Sneinton – installing habitats and clearing up, while art workshops and musical performances also featured through the day. There aren’t enough opportunities to get your hands dirty in green spaces, nowadays, and continues to be very important for our well-being and sense of community, so it’s good to see Notts folks taking matters into their own hands, as always.
TRUTH
Something made you laugh in the lavs? Send your funniest quips to editorial@leftlion.co.uk
Guess the answer to this Notts themed riddle…
I am a place
For laughter and tears
I’ve sat in this space for 52 years.
Many pass through me
Some you will know
But we always applaud
When it’s their time to go.
I have a great disc
To send back the sky
And a circus beside me
But where am I?
Last month’s
Unpicking Nottingham's urban myths
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE EAGLE LECTERN
As far as buried treasure goes, Newstead Abbey is definitely not on George Lucas’ radar as the location for the inevitable sixth instalment of Indiana Jones. However, for keen-eyed readers, Newstead Abbey has been a recurring feature of this November edition, so it would be rude not to explore its buried history. Or rather, its submerged history.
One of the many owners of Newstead Abbey is believed to have been in some serious trouble, not only financially but socially as well – that was the fifth Lord Byron, also known as the ‘Wicked Lord’ or (my personal favourite) the ‘Devil Byron.’ He was awarded this nickname because of his involvement in the death of his cousin and neighbour, William Chaworth.( I say involvement, but really, he was convicted of manslaughter given the fact that following a drunken debate, he drew out his sword and stabbed Chaworth.) Following a series of debts incurred by the fifth Lord Byron, he was forced to sell many of his assets to offset these debts - presumably ones incurred by defence lawyers. Consequently, one of these assets was an eagle lectern which was sold to a clergyman. Now this is where that eagle’s story becomes rather murky.
It is believed that the eagle lectern was initially found in the deepest part of the lake at Newstead Abbey. It is unclear as to why people were swimming around the deepest part of the lake in the first place, but for the sake of folklore, we shall continue with this myth.
Upon retrieving the eagle from the lake, it was in dire straits and in need of cleaning after being submerged for so many years. It was soon taken to a brazier who began to unscrew parts of the lectern and found several documents relating to a medieval monastery, bearing seals from Edward III and Henry VIII. To the brazier’s surprise, these documents were in mint condition, despite being within the drowned golden lectern. At this point, I would fully understand if you were to reject the validity of this legend, given the fact that it infers that paper does not get wet.
These documents were believed to have been hidden within the eagle lectern by the friars, just before Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, then disposed of in the lake. The hope was that these documents would be retrieved, and substantiate the friar’s rights.
This legend stems from one Colonel Thomas Wildman who purchased the property from Lord Byron (the poet Lord Byron - not to be confused with his great-uncle with murderous intent). During a big lad’s weekender, Wildman invited his friend Washington Irving to stay with him for three weeks. A short story writer best known for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving was quite an imaginative fellow. His hearing this tale from the Colonel perhaps explains much of the eagle lectern’s rather unrealistic backstory.
Despite whether you believe it to be truth or legend, you can find the eagle lectern in Southwell Minster, in the choir area, in very good condition. However, the concealed documents are not on display. Presumably because Irving made it up…
words: Matthew Blaney
Nottingham Comedy Festival
When: Sat 1 - Sun 9 November
Where: Various locations
How much: From £5
The Nottingham Comedy Festival is back for its 17th year, and will see a diversity of comedians from across the country visit Notts for ten days of unparalleled fun and laughter. The impressively lengthy line-up is curated by Helen Stead, and encompasses comedy of all forms – from stand up comedy to improv to drag to poetry to music. Moreover, for the very first time the festival is showcasing a show for kids on the second weekend, at the Vat and Fiddle. Nottingham’s a big player in UK comedy, and if you need a reminder of that – check this out.
When: Fri 7 November
Where: The Chapel
How much: £6.60
Alex Herington, who goes by Hexial, is a musician and audiovisual artist from Notts who makes cinematic ambient music in the vein of Jon Hopkins and Floating Points. This month he’ll be launching his new album: Through Static as part of a special live show at The Chapel, which will feature exclusive visuals, plus supporting performances from Cholly and James Glew. If you like the sound of immersive electronic music combined with striking, surreal compositions of light and sound, this will be a great choice.
Nottingham Film Festival
When: Mon 3 - Sun 9 November
Where: Various locations How much: From £4.00
Now in its second year, the Nottingham Film Festival is a showcase of shorts, animations, music videos, experimental visual works, and feature films. There’ll be an assortment of pretty fascinating creative pieces to watch, including Just Kids and Kingdom – two documentaries about gender affirming care –and The Endless Tide plus Wild Coast Warriors – two films about indigenous communities battling the effects of climate change. Beyond that there’ll be themed showings of multiple shorts – with titles like ‘Green’, ‘Space and Place’, and ‘Body’.
When: Fri 7 November
Where: New Art Exchange How much: Free
This is a free event marking Angolan Independence Day, which happened in 1975. As is the case with lots of the cultural events that the New Art Exchange holds in their multi-purpose space, this evening will contain lots of fun cultural activities, with a dance workshop, DJs, live performances, and traditional food. If you need some community spirit, there will be few options as suitable as this – the latest instalment in the New Art Exchange’s story as a buzzing cultural hub for the Hyson Green area.
The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
When: Tue 4 - Sat 8 November
Where: Theatre Royal How much: From £23.50
This month, the stage adaptation of C.S Lewis’ classic novel: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, reaches Notts, in celebration of the story’s 75th anniversary. There’s a great cast involved, including seasoned stage actor Katy Stephens as the White Witch, plus a group of dynamic, young actors as the Pensieve children, including Jesse Dunbar and Kudzai Mangombe. Honestly, what better way to spend a dark autumn evening than wrapped up in one of history’s most famous fantasy stories?
When: Fri 7 November
Where: The Level How much: From £20
The Smyths are one of the most successful and nationally loved tribute acts going – having paid homage to and reimagined the music of The Smiths for over twenty years. They’ve been consistently acclaimed for their musical talent, and ability to recreate the live experience people had back in the 80s, by people like Jeremy Vine and original guitarist Johnny Marr himself. This upcoming show at The Level will see them mark the 40th anniversary of the second Smiths album – Meat is Murder
Paint and Sip - Starry Night
When: Wed 5, 12, 26 November
Where: Malt Cross How much: £35.37
The Malt Cross team continues to excel at hosting unique events that create a fun sense of community, and if you’ve got time to do but one this autumn we’d very much recommend their ‘paint and sip’ sessions. Over the course of an evening, participants get a step by step painting session led by experienced artists (with a drink by your side, if you so choose), plus you can take home your work at the end. Lots of people attest nowadays to how calming and social an activity painting can be, so if that’s what you need then you’re bound to enjoy this.
When: Fri 7 - Sun 9 November
Where: Lakeside Arts
How much: Free
Lustre is an annual craft fair at the tranquil surroundings of Lakeside Arts, which this year will see fifty of the UK’s top designer-makers and craft artists showcase and sell their work, spanning jewellery, textiles, ceramics, glass, leather, wood, and loads more. If you want to get in early with finding some thoughtful Christmas gifts for your loved ones, or just like the idea of supporting independent creatives from across the country, you certainly will be glad that you attended.
Hexial
Drena
The Smyths
Lustre Craft Fair
best oF the month
When: Sat 8 November
Where: Nottingham Central Library
How much: Free entry
Zines are an art form which has shaped culture across the world for a long time, and have lots of importance here in Nottingham. Celebrating this, the Nottingham Zine Fest will this month take over the whole of Nottingham Central Library for an exciting day of stalls, workshops, talks, performances, live illustration, readings, and exhibitions, facilitated by creative people of all disciplines. Whether you’ve got an avid or passing interest in our city’s pretty thriving independent culture scene, this will be the place to be.
When: 13 November
Where: The Arc Cinema
How much: £16.95 - £17.95
This is a striking behind-thescenes look at one of British comedy’s most recognisable characters, as he embarks on a comedy tour through five different countries. Battling ailments and travel adversity all the while, John Cleese reflects on his long stage career stretching back to 1963. As documentaries about entertainment figures go, this is bound to be a fascinating one. For a cosy and memorable trip to the theatre, bound to be made particularly worthwhile by the welcoming Arc Cinema complex, check it out.
When: Tue 11 November
Where: Mansfield Palace Theatre
How much: £24
Performed by Hinckley-based ballet company Ballet Theatre UK, this is a retelling of the classic Charles Dickens story through the medium of dance. Also included are a score of festive carols, excellent costume work, and impressive choreography created by artistic director Christopher Moore. There’s nothing like a good family trip to the theatre, and with the festive season emerging on the horizon this show should make for a memorable one with your loved ones.
When: Fri 14 November
Where: Fisher Gate Point
How much: £14.25
“Mansfield’s greatest export,” Sue Cheroux, played by actress and comedian Susan Earl, turns up at Fisher Gate Point this month with an energetic evening of comedy, singing, dancing, audience participation, and impromptu therapizing (Sue is apparently a therapist as well as a singer now, trained by podcasts). This will definitely be a profoundly fun and memorable one for those seeking a laugh. Susan is also a very seasoned actress who featured on Reggie Perrin and Red Dwarf, so you’ll be in for a great night of grassroots Notts talent.
When: Wed 12 - Sun 16 November
Where: Motorpoint Arena
How much: From £29.75
Disney On Ice returns to Notts this month, and is set to be bigger, better, and more enjoyable than ever for people who want to give their little ones a magical, memorable experience. The Nottingham show features characters from movies like Encanto, Moana, and Frozen, plus other classic Disney princesses. Having been entertaining audiences for over forty years, this event continues to be immensely popular and worthwhile, with reviews highlighting the talent of the dancers, lighting, staging, and costumes.
When: Sat 15 November
Where: The Nest
How much: From £45
This is an immensely popular beer festival that tours around the UK. This Nottingham edition is a particularly festive, Christmas themed one, featuring more or less everything you’d want from a festival, with 15+ breweries, cideries, and wineries, acoustic sets and live bands, street food, and more. Some of the less festive disposition might say it’s too early for Christmasthemed parties, but we’re convinced the joyful atmosphere of this one will make you feel differently.
When: Thu 13 November
Where: Rock City
How much: £25
Brit Award winning group English Teacher are one of the most exciting bands in the country – four highly adept instrumentalists, trained at the Leeds Conservatoire and making poetic indie rock songs, with an intriguing post-punk quality. They’re still on tour promoting their 2024 record: This Could Be Texas, which won the Mercury Prize for songwriting last year. This headline show in Nottingham is guaranteed to be immensely exciting, as a demonstration of some of the best British guitar music currently out and are guaranteed to put on a very memorable, and very technically impressive, headline show.
When: Sat 15 - Sun 16 November
Where: Lakeside Arts
How much: £10.50 - £12
Touring theatre company Stories in the Dust are bringing their forward-thinking show of the same name to Lakeside Arts this month. Featuring actors Anna Harriott and Iona Johnson, this show is described as an ‘eco fable’, telling the story of two travellers journeying across a mysterious land in a contraption they’ve built themselves, singing, playing games, and telling stories inspired by times gone by. The show is suitable for kids aged 5-12, and is guaranteed to be a thoughtful and engaging watch.
Notts Zine Fest
A Christmas Carol
Disney On Ice
English Teacher
John Cleese Packs It In
Sue Cheroux Comedy Cabaret
Craft Brew Festival
Stories in the Dust
Jerub
When: Wed 19 November
Where: Rescue Rooms
How much: £12.50
Jerub is an artist from Nottingham whose soulful pop songs have earned him a head-turning one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Surprisingly, this Nottingham show in November is part of his first headline tour across both the UK and Europe. Along with other artists who came up through the Notts scene, like Myles Smith, JayaHadADream, and Divorce, Jerub is certainly one cementing our city’s reputation as a hotbed for nationally recognised talent, so if you fancy later saying “I was there,” grab those tickets.
La Bohème
When: Wed 19 - Sat 22 November
Where: Theatre Royal How much: From £34
Opera North presents what will likely be a very spectacular retelling of famous Italian opera: La Bohème – focusing on a 1960s Paris-set love story between two characters: poet, Rodolfo, and seamstress, Mimi. If you’ve ever been curious about checking out some opera, or if you’re an avid fan of it, this will be a great show to attend – as it’s one of the most performed operas worldwide, loved for its intensely well-drawn characters. In this show, the legendary music of Puccini will be performed by Opera North’s live orchestra.
Unknown Era
When: Sat 22 November
Where: Metronome How much: £18.70
Legendary local ska, hip-hop, and pink collective Unknown Era are reconnecting to play Metronome this month, with support coming from The Hoplites and Ember and The Sentient Sound. If you’re unaware of the band, they’re a long established group in the Nottingham scene, often featuring no less than nine musicians, and have performed across the UK, often as part of some of the country’s biggest festivals like Y Not, Boomtown, and Splendour. This show will feature members from across the years, as well as some special guests.
Sat 29
When: Sat 22 November
Where:
The Nottingham Poetry Festival has played a huge part in filling our city with dynamic poetic voices, and it also passed its tenth anniversary earlier this year. To celebrate this, the Nottingham Playhouse are hosting four world renowned poets for an evening of performance. On the lineup are the official poet of the London Olympics: Lemn Sissay, NPF co-founder Henry Normal, novelist and poet Joelle Taylor, and People’s Book Prize winning writer Salena Godden.
National Theatre Live presents a new play written by David Ireland, starring internationally renowned actors Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden. The story follows two characters who meet via an alcoholic anonymous programme, before their friendship is threatened by certain revelations. The show will be filmed live from Soho Place, on London’s West End. The play has also had some very good reviews, which highlight the dark comedy and rich, universal themes.
Marsh
Sat 29 November Where: The Bodega
Bored Marsh an alt-rock four piece who embody how exciting a cultural force our city’s guitar music scene can really be. With a name referencing the derelict shopping centre, plus bringing to mind austerity and midlands life, they make reverb soaked, dynamic songs that tilt into heavier moments. They’ve received lots of support from outlets across the country like BBC Radio, Under The Radar, and Louder Than War. This Bodega show will be their first time headlining the venue – which is often ground zero for our city’s most acclaimed bands in an indie adjacent space.
Captain Dangerous With Orchestra
When: Sat 22 November
Where: The Old Cold Store
How much: £11
Captain Dangerous are a Nottingham quintet who make off-kilter pop music in the spirit of bands like Blur and Pavement, with particularly immersive songwriting. This is their first show together in more than a decade, as part of I’m Not From London’s 20th birthday celebrations. To make it extra special they will be performing alongside a twentypiece orchestra. They’re also celebrating thirteen years of their much-loved album Forgive Us We’re British, which was recorded at JT Soar.
Where:
The regular Christmas market hosted by It’s in Nottingham, our city’s business improvement district, will this year set up shop by Nottingham Castle for three whole days. There will be lots to check out, with ninety independent stalls, a Makers Marquee, free family activities, seasonal food and drink, plus live music. This will be a pretty excellent way to get you and your loved ones into the festive spirit, especially with the addition of the atmospheric castle grounds.
A Decade of Nottingham Poetry Festival
Nottingham Playhouse How much: From £35
The Fifth Step When: Thu 27,
November Where: Savoy Cinema How much: £11 - £14
Bored
When:
How much: £11
Christmas Market at Nottingham Castle When: Fri 28 to Sun 30 November
Nottingham Castle How much: £2 (prebook needed)
Christmas Market at Nottingham Castle
Friday 28 November 11am – 8pm Saturday 29 November 10am – 7pm
Welcome in the festive season as you browse a selection of stalls offering amazing gifts, decorations and tasty treats.
Tickets are only £2 for adults and £1 for under 15s, including castle entry!*
Sunday 30 November 10am – 4pm
