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32 photos showing how one of Nottingham’s busiest shopping streets has changed
Lister Gate used to be one of Nottingham’s busiest shopping streets. Over the years it has been home to high street giants such as Boots, WH Smith, River Island, M&S Home… and going back even further C&A and Woolworth.
Street artists made it a colourful thoroughfare – from chalk drawings to poets, buskers to living statues, while avoiding chuggers and market researchers became a bit of a game for pedestrians. Costa Coffee and Starbucks had a presence there and before their arrival people flocked to the Farmhouse Kitchen, which served chip cobs, scones and daily specials.
Gordon Scott’s shoe shop delighted adults and children alike with the acrobatic monkey in the window, but the shop has long gone, just like a branches of HSBC, Poundland and Shoe Zone.
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The switch to online shopping and the knock-on effect of the demise of Broadmarsh has led to multiple closures, leaving the once thriving street a shadow of its former self. Today Lister Gate is home to Greggs, New Look, H&M and the Tiger community hub.
But there is a glimmer of hope. A new discount Stock Giant, with deals on items ranging from toys to electrical goods, is due to open soon in the former Gordon Scott shop and fashion retailer Flannels is gearing up to open in the former River Island shop. Developers have also been buying empty shops to bring the area ‘back to life’.
These photos from the archives show how much the street has changed over the years.
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Lister Gate pictured this week
(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Nottingham Post)Starbucks used to have a coffee shop in Lister Gate
C&A was a popular shop back in the day
Frank Robinson, aka Xylophone Man, busking outside C&A (now H&M)
(Image: Steve Mincher)Clive Palethorpe had a fruit stall in 2016
Another market stall, this time selling Christmas wrapping paper, near Woolworth
Costa Coffee closed down in Lister Gate in 2017
Inside Gordon Scott shoe shop
Poundland, Clinton Cards and Game all used to be on Lister Gate
A Cancer Research shop opened in 2015
Going way back before Lister Gate was pedestrianised
In 2001 the Queen visited
EastEnders bad boy Craig Fairbrass, who played Dan Sullivan, opened a new Superdrug store in 2001
Cyprian Soradle from Bucharest, Romania, posing as a silver floating statue in Lister Gate
Who can forget the famous Charlie the monkey in the window of Gordon Scott shoe shop?
Nottingham Post vendor David James took along Pugsy, an eight-week-old Japanese Akita puppy to his Lister Gate pitch
Around 350 fans queued to see A1 at WH Smith in 2002
There used to be a blooming lovely flower stall
Marks & Spencer opened a homewares shop in 2001 but it closed during the pandemic in 2020
Going back over 100 years ago to 1905 with the Walter Fountain in the foreground. It was demolished in the 1950s when the road was widened
Bomb damage to a building after a Zeppelin raid on the city
The Farmhouse restaurant was the place for chip cobs, scones and daily specials
Lister Gate in 1988 – an image from A Century of Nottingham by Douglas Whitworth
Woolworth to the right of Broadmarsh
The queue for Depeche Mode at the opening of HMV in 1986
The Tiger community hub
(Image: Nottingham Post/ Joel Moore)Curry’s used to have a shop in Lister Gate
Shop doorways have become a shelter for the homeless
(Image: Nottingham Post)In years gone by (Picture Nottingham)
The Sawyers Arms in the background during celebrations in Nottingham in 1970 marking the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower’s historic voyage
Lister Gate’s empty units pictured in January 2023
(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Nottingham Post)
