Trinity Square Nottingham

Trinity Square Nottingham showing Holy Trinity church, The Mechanics Institute and the Baptist Chapel, 1853

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Temporary shops, Trinity Square, 1958

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Laid out in the early 19th Century, Trinity Square was originally an open space surrounded by impressive buildings. It has undergone at least two major redevelopments in the past 60 years, with further plans in the pipeline.  

Holy Trinity Church, an example of Victorian High Gothic architecture, was designed by Henry Isaac Stevens and built in 1841; for many years it had a tall spire which was eventually removed.  

In 1953, council plans to demolish Holy Trinity church and redevelop Trinity Square were greeted with protests - 16,000 local people signed a petition against the proposal. However demolition went ahead in 1957/8 and in the early 1960s, a new office block and multi storey car park were built.  

In preparation for the new buildings, shopkeepers whose premises were to be demolished were accommodated in a row of temporary wooden shops which were built on rollers so that they could be moved forward to the edge of the new road when the land they were on was required. In the event, this was not necessary as the shopkeepers were able to move into the new building before the land was needed. (Source: Nottingham. Journal 1st Jul 1961)

The 1960s buildings were in turn demolished and redeveloped during the period 2003 – 2007.  

The original Mechanics Institute also stood on Trinity Square at the junction of Milton Street, Burton Street and Trinity Square, opposite the original entrance to Victoria Station. The Mechanic's Institute comprised of a large hall, (110 ft long, 59 ft wide and 40 ft high), a members refreshment room, and, from 1912, the nearby former Baptist Chapel. Later on, the hall became a cinema and was called Mechanics Pictures.  

All these buildings were demolished in the 1950s and replaced by Birkbeck House, a modern office block which incorporated a new Mechanics Institute.

That building was in turn demolished as part of the later redevelopment of Trinity Square. A new Mechanics Institute was built on North Sherwood Street.