Memories
The Shakespeare Street Adult Education Centre is where I realised my passion for learning and gave me the opportunity to move onto doing two degrees. I feel passionately about people having access to this type of learning. Even the short courses which were available when I first attended the centre not only give people invaluable learning opportunities but also improves their social and mental wellbeing. The most important resource we have is our ability to adapt and change and build on our resources as well rounded human beings. The availability of adult education in all its forms in crucial and central to this.
Helen Stevenson, student 1993-2006,
various short courses which led to a full time Geography degree, and then a part-time Fine Art degree.
All the tutors, staffs and students from Shakespeare street were friendly and lively. Everyone was willing to work, share knowledge and personal experiences. It was a great place to learn - full of history and memories.
Laurene Fraisse, Exchange Student, English 2008/2009
I first came to Shakespeare Street in 1981, when Frank Walter, then Director of Courses, saw me on Midlands Today and asked me to run a course on King John. I loved the place and stayed, taking courses in literature with Mandy Hodgson in the 1980s, moving on to Creative Writing with Sheelagh Gallagher in the 1990s. I will miss Shakespeare Street enormously. In its heyday it was brimming with students loving the process of learning for its own sake; a social centre, a place where learning felt holistic and inspirational, and where I made lifelong friends. And, of course, a beautiful building. We shall not see its like again.
Roberta Dewa, tutor, 1997-2007
History, Literature, Creative Writing
I'm sorry I cannot throw any light on the removal of the statue from Shakespeare St, but I do have memories of the building. I also did not know that the building was owned by the University College. However, I do know that my father ran the Nottingham Office of the Coal Survey in the building from about 1930 until the office and laboratories had to move out in about 1952 to Chalfont Drive. The Coal Survey had originally been set up by colliery owners, but had been taken over by the government Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. By 1952 it had again been taken over by the National Coal Board. My father's office was immediately to the right of the front door which I remember as being very wide and difficult to push! Also on the ground floor were a number of chemical laboratories and you could smell these as soon as the front door opened! The function of the Survey was to map the seams of coal and analyse their quality, so both labs and drawing offices were necessary. I believe that the other tenants of the building were the Gregg School, a sort of secretarial training college. Presumably they were on the upper floors as I was never taken upstairs. I would be interested to hear if there is any archive material that would corroborate these memories
Geoff Dawe, Electrical Engineering, 1957
This course was my introduction to Shakespeare Street and Adult Education: it set me on the road to a BA and then PhD on the main campus. From 1996-99 I was a tutor on six Shakespeare Street courses, including Dialect and You, Writers and Dialect, The Personal Voice in Literature, and Tony Harrison: the Yorkshire Poet who Came to Read the Metre. I would like to thank all my students during those years for the joy I found in our shared learning experience.
Dr Hilary Hillier, student 1970s, and tutor
Sociology
Perchance to Dream
Shakespeare’s going to sleep – perchance to dream
creative stuff will move a newer way
these doors will soon be locked – it seems
the emptiness has moved in here to stay
creative stuff will move a newer way
Jubilee now knows what it should do
tho’ it can’t be shakespeare –he’s finished his last play
it can’t pretend the old or hide the truth
these doors will soon be locked – it seems
we’ll never hear the sirens pass our doors
we’re off to triumph road – we hope it’s clean
we take a breath – a long and thoughtful pause
though emptiness has moved in here to stay
creative stuff will move a newer way
Dave Wood, Creative & Professional Writing Tutor
it’s about recollections
of people and relationships
conversation and debate
remarkable sounds and sights
it’s about the sirens
blaring from roaring engines
speeding from the station opposite
─ of workmen digging holes in the street
it’s about artists filling those
with ideas and paint and words
hanging the holes on Georgian walls
displaying how they’ve been filled
it’s colours, perfect perspective, perfect symmetry
one of the shades of green, a shape seen in a dream
it’s the windows, the brick, the soft stone and the name
the dark green door in its understanding frame
it’s about the coffee machine that never worked
about Barry, Linda the boss, and Linda the clerk
echoes of yesterday and what tomorrow will bring
─ to recitals with musical backing guiding the scheme
it’s youngsters sharing memoir they hope no-one knows the first reading of those all-important innovative poems the gift of imagination bringing on the life-changing prose of learning how to stop telling to make your stories show
it’s a seat of teaching, achievement, and meeting of minds
where page and image can be shared by appreciative eyes
the friendly librarian with the hair and unforgettable face
in my life for four years, it’s no wonder I love the place
Pete Walsh, Student 2006-
Creative and Professional Writing
Having been a member of staff at Shakespeare St for the last 15 years, I have met some wonderful people, staff, tutors and students.
I have enjoyed every single day and worked with a great team in Julie Garlick, Linda McMullen, Linda Moses and Laura Hansell who all got on fantastically and created a warm friendly atmosphere in the centre.
Many tutors have passed through during my time at the centre too many to recall and I hope that one or two of them will have learned a few things from me as well, like laptops and digital projectors work much better when turned on.
I am going to miss the place but hope that of the people I have met, that our paths will cross again.
Would also like to mention the team of cleaners we have at the centre who work very well as a team and do a very good job.
Barry Peers, Building Attendent