Nottingham Council House - Exchange Arcade

Exchange Arcade

The ground floor is predominantly an upmarket shopping mall now called 'The Exchange' having had an image makeover in 2005. The original name of Exchange Arcade is still used by the majority of local people however. The arcade houses numerous upmarket stores, the majority devoted to fashion. This retailing area was included in the design to fund the Corporation's construction of the building, during the Great Depression and remained under council control until sold in 1985 and redeveloped as a shopping centre. This part of the building has been in private hands since that time, and is currently owned by a Pension Fund, and managed by a Property Management company on its behalf. Each shop has its own basement showroom or storage facilities, deliveries being made via an underground roadway, served by a vehicular lift on Cheapside. This service area was originally the fresh produce hall, and received natural light via pavement lights in the floor of the arcade above. The locations of those lights can still be seen, marked by the 1985 vintage terracotta tile strips which replaced them, interspersed between the original York stone paving slabs which remain. The owners are currently (December 2011) formulating plans for wholesale replacement of this slabbing (like-for-like), since much of is at the end of its serviceable life.

The upper floors of the Exchange Arcade house council offices. On the North side, the space is given over to the environmental health and community protection functions of the city council.

Painted murals underneath the Council House dome feature:

• The Danes capturing Nottingham in 868:
• William the Conqueror ordering the building of the castle in 1068;
• Robin Hood and his Merry Men;
• King Charles I raising his standard at the start of the Civil War in 1642.

Each mural was the work of local artist Denholm Davis. The artist used local celebrities as models. Thus T. Cecil Howitt himself appears in the guise of William the Conqueror's surveyor, and legendary Notts County goalkeeper Albert Iremonger as Little John. The inscription around the base of the dome reads: 'The Corporation of Nottingham erected this building for counsel and welcome, and to show merchandise and crafts'.