When I was in my very early twenties me and a few fellows would periodically take a trip down the road to Nottingham on a record buying mission to the famous Arcade records. One of my mates already knew where it was and this knowledge came as a surprise to me as he barely left the house - still doesn't - and to this very day he still hasn't learned to drive. On one particular trip we got a little lost as there was a diversion in place and I only knew one way as sat navs weren't invented and we ended up spotting a community centre type building with a perimeter wall that was bombed to hell. The building itself was also shrouded in graffiti and there wasn't a space left that wasn't 'written' on. I parked up, got the camera out - I always carried it, just in case - and snapped away. We'd already discovered the Cifton Youth Centre as we'd been to a graffiti competition/exhibition before - it was there that I'd heard 'The Magic Number' by De La Soul for the first time having already been down to Warp records to try and get it that very morning only to be told that 'it wasn't out yet'. - hence the reason for the out of town buying trips. This place, we later learned, was St. Anns. We went back once more with a mate who worked at the Kodak shop in the city - can't think why I invited him - and took loads more between us and swapped when he'd developed them. The very last time we returned was about a year later and we were disappointed to find it all nicely painted in neutral, bland colours with no sign of the colourful and vibrant artwork that took us by surprise the first time we happened to drive by. A shame really as that's what Clifton looked like after we went back there too a few years later. Good job I always traveled with the trusty, non-digital camera that was really hard to load.
I've chosen a few pics for you to download and have a look at and labelled them as best I can remember. If you are a native of the area or traveled around a bit like we did well. you never know, they might trigger a few fond memories.
UPDATE July 13 - If you want to see more graffiti from Nottingham's well respected past, there's a facebook group dedicated to its history. Its an active group with hundreds of old school photos. You can find it here: - https://www.facebook.com/groups/118592520553/
