'Meet me at the left lion': encounters within Nottingham's Old Market Square

Purssord, L, 2011. 'Meet me at the left lion': encounters within Nottingham's Old Market Square. The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, 1 (1), pp. 81-96. ISSN 2154-8587

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Abstract

Architecture can form the structure for internal or external gathering places, however, geographer Doreen Massey defnes places, not by their physical characteristics, but as the points of interconnecting fows of people, goods, communications, memories, and imagination, positing that all places are meeting places. At the heart of the city centre, Nottingham’s Old Market Square is where the local inhabitants go to work and play; protest, mourn and celebrate. It is a place of formal and informal encounters, where friends and acquaintances meet, by chance or design; where strangers might exchange a glance or a few words; where people watch other people. Originally a shared market place for Saxon and Norman settlements, the earliest maps of the city show that the footprint of the square has remained the same for many hundreds of years, though its design and edge have gone through numerous transformations. The latest remodelling was undertaken by internationally renowned landscape architecture practice Gustafson Porter: unveiled in 2007, it has won a raft of awards including the inaugural RIBA CABE Public Space Award. Drawing on work undertaken with architecture students to explore individual experiences of the square, the paper will outline some of the fows, past and present, as well as the physical elements, which contribute to the square’s success as a place of encounter.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	The International Journal of the Constructed Environment
Creators:	Purssord, L.
Publisher:	Common Ground Research Networks
Place of Publication:	Champaign, IL
Date:	2011
Volume:	1
Number:	1
ISSN:	2154-8587
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.18848/2154-8587/CGP/v01i01/37377 DOI 482630 Other
Rights:	© Common Ground Publishing, Lindsay Purssord, 2011. All Rights Reserved.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:25
Last Modified:	14 May 2024 10:12
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12788

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