The Thompsons on beer, lost Nottingham and Haydn Road

Beer

We like Adnams Bitter, the best beer in the world. Nothing fancy. I can't stand this citrussy nonsense. Brown ale, that’s what we like. We went to the craft beer thing because you lot got us some tickets, and we tried three beers. There was one from Manchester, which was cloudy but alright. Then there was the Navigation from Nottingham, that was alright as well. Then the Magpie Brewery was lovely. But if it's too grapefuity or too citrussy, well we’d rather have a grapefruit.

Lost Nottingham

The County Hotel, that was fantastic. And Yates's. We used to go to Yates three times a week. The County Hotel was beside the Theatre Royal and was a Grade I and they knocked it down before they said sorry. Terrible. And where we used to work before we worked here, and it’s a pity it’s gone, was Redmayne & Todd, which was a sports outfitters. In fact, half of Nottingham has disappeared. Some fantastic shops back in the day.

Haydn Road

The reason it’s called Haydn Road is because they used to make lace here, and it was a German lace manufacturer, not a composer or anything. If you look at the history of Haydn Road it was full of factories making clothes and lace, and of course brush motorbikes and cars. This row of shops was built in 1913 and they were built as shops, not houses. The walls outside the houses are all Bulwell stone. There was a privet hedge right in the middle of the road and before that there was a stream. How far it goes back after that we don’t know.