East Midland Arcades

The East Midlands cities of Nottingham and Derby both have vintage shopping arcades from very different eras. The Strand Arcade in Derby dates from 1881 and pre-dates the Council House Arcade (1928) in Nottingham by about 47 years. They also differ in scale - the Derby arcade is a conventional Victorian design, comparable with many other examples in cities such as Cardiff, Birmingham, Bournemouth and Hull with ground floor shops and first floor accommodation.  Unlike others in Norwich, Newcastle or Leeds that dazzle the eye with ceramic splendour, the internal decoration is modest and the walkway, which connects The Strand with Sadler Gate to the north, is relatively intimate in scale.  The Strand itself has a fine continuous Neo-classical 3 and 4 storey frontage and the entrance to the arcade is included in Historic England’s Grade II listing. Rescued from dilapidation in 2006, it seems in good shape with an eclectic range of shops, no empty premises and a decent footfall.

In Nottingham the grand and spacious shopping arcade is part of the city's Council House and dates from 1928. The Council House was designed by the City Architect (T Cecil Howitt) to meet the need for a city hall and council chamber with the addition of a T-shaped shopping arcade inspired by the spectacular  Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. What came to be built was a much reduced version of the Galleria with clean lines and restrained decoration. Not without its own sense of grandeur, I suspect an association with the architecture of privilege has deterred major retailers. Footfall seems light - it offers only minor advantages to pedestrians in search of a short cut. Nonetheless it survives as a destination for patrons of specialist traders in high value goods and an art dealer.

 

Postcard Disasters - Messina 1908

For a while in the early decades of the postcard, publishers would dispatch their camera crews to record the aftermath of any manmade or natural disaster.  Copies were printed overnight and dispatched to street vendors and kiosks the next day. Editorial selection showed little regard for the sensibilities of victims or their friends and families. Images of the dead struck a morbid note but were not uncommon. A catastrophic earthquake struck the Sicilian port city of Messina in December 1908 - the epicentre was in the centre of the Strait of Messina and the mainland city of Reggio Calabria was equally devastated, first by the quake, then by a series of tsunamis. In Messina there were 75,000 fatalities (almost half the population), in Reggio 25,000 lives were lost.  Some 90% of Messina’s buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged despite which the postcard photographers got to work.  The event is unsurpassed as the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Europe. As recently as 2021 it was reported that some citizens of Messina were still housed in some of the temporary barrack-like buildings that went up in the early phase of rebuilding.  Restoration work went on for decades but no postcard photographers were on hand to record the process.  The last two images offer a moving reflection on the toll of human life.