It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact Jesse Boot has had on Nottingham.
His father John ran a herbalist and drug-dispensing business based in Hockley which Jesse eventually took over and transformed into the multinational pharmaceutical business Boots The Chemist.
The Nottingham University grounds and Highfields park are probably his most well-known tangible gifts to the city, but employees of bygone Boots enjoyed many more. On the city side of Trent Bridge in 1919, he established an employee’s social club above the rather functionally-named Boots Store number 2. Over the decades the social club grew in popularity, and by 1979 the building was used solely as a social club. Nowadays, we all get to visit the site of this wonderful building. Castle Rock Brewery took over the site last year, and opened it as The Embankment.
The structure itself is an utter delight, and caught my eye long before I knew histories could be uncovered in books, and even longer before internet research ever existed. It’s a celebration of bay windows and timber beams with an audacious turret on its north-eastern corner. Forest and NCCC fans walking from the city or The Meadows to their particular sporting temple will doubtless have looked upon it many a time, and , I’m certain, been intrigued by it.
The architect of the building was A.N. Bromley, no stranger to eye-catching designs. He is also responsible for the former Boots store in the city centre. It’s on the corner of High Street and Pelham Street, adorned with cherubs, strange fish and scowling grotesques. This one was the first store in the city centre to feature electric lights, allowing Boots to tempt shoppers with their wares on dark winter evenings.
Castle Rock have done a superb job of reflecting and preserving the site’s history at The Embankment. The section that previously housed Boots Store number 2 is now The Dispensary, where you can sample real ale and craft beer. The original social club is the Lord Trent Room (Jesse Boot was made Lord Trent in 1929) whilst his old office is now a wood-lined gallery with a view down to the main bar. Much of the building’s exterior is original, and has been cleaned and restored magnificently. The Embankment’s closer to the city centre than you might imagine, and well worth visiting. Much has been made of the city’s architectural losses over the decades, so it only feels right to support a venture where the past is honoured so brilliantly.
The Embankment website: http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/the-embankment/
By Scott Taylor
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