4 Bridlesmith Gate and 13 Poultry

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to amend the description and sources on the 23 August 2022

SK5739NW 646-1/20/41

NOTTINGHAM BRIDLESMITH GATE (West side) No.4

GV II

Includes: No.13 POULTRY.

Shops and offices. c1870, altered late C20. Red brick with ashlar dressings and hipped slate roof. Renaissance Revival style. Quoins, sill bands, string courses, eaves cornice on brackets, blocking course. Windows are mainly original plain sashes. Four storeys; 5 x 2 windows. Bridlesmith Gate front has to left a late C19 wooden shopfront with recessed door and two-light shop window, flanked by granite pilasters carrying a fascia board. To left of the door, a C20 door to a side entry. To right, late C20 shopfront with plate glass windows and corner doorway, under C19 cornice. Above, five sashes with moulded surrounds and pediments. Above again, five segment-arched sashes with keystones, hood moulds and impost band. Above again, segment-arched sashes with keystones and flush impost band. Right return, to Poultry, has the ground floor carried on mosaic-clad columns. Upper floors have similar fenestration to main front.

On 16 September 1924, a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) regional radio studio was established at 4, Bridlesmith Gate. It was part of a national network of main and relay stations expanding BBC broadcasting across the country. Since the early C20, the BBC has grown into a public service broadcaster of international repute. Aiming to inform, educate and entertain, the BBC plays a prominent role in British life and culture. The BBC was formed on 18 October 1922 with the responsibility to provide a public radio broadcast service in Britain. It is the world’s oldest national broadcaster. The BBC’s first broadcast was a news bulletin on 14 November 1922. At first the daily six hours of news and entertainment programmes reached perhaps only tens of thousands of listeners. The Company’s growing national importance was recognised when it became a public corporation by Royal Charter on 1 January 1927.

Expansion of the BBC’s transmission station network, continuing increases in airtime and growth in the number of people owning a radio set licence meant that, by 1939, BBC programming was listened to in about 75% of British households. The BBC began broadcasting the world’s first regularly-scheduled high-definition television service on 2 November 1936. By the time of the BBC’s centenary in 2022, its radio, television and online services were being used by on average five million adults every minute of the day and night.

Listing NGR: SK5737739858