The main trunk roads out of Nottingham are on the West & lead either to or across the M1 (the main English east-coast 6-lane motorway built in the 1970s). On the East side – which is where I live – most of the roads leading out of the town are B-roads, such as the B686 which can eventually take you to Southwell (pronounced locally as ‘suth-ell’) and Newark. That road is better known in Nottingham as Carlton Road then – at the point where Nottingham ends & Gedling begins – as Carlton Hill. At the top of that hill is (surprise, surprise) Carlton + Carlton shops.

If you are getting an impression of small-town & suburban for Carlton, then you are exactly right. The oldest date that I’ve spotted for a house in Carlton is 1906. The housing is mostly 1920/30s semi-detached with some Victorian (or later) Terraces + detached houses sprinkled amongst them.

The development of the shops is also a classic tale. Carlton is built upon a hill, and Carlton Hill is the road that leads in and out of Carlton on both sides. Enterprising householders at the top of the rise would have begun a shop in their front-room & extended into the back-room if successful.

However, there is not much room; the B686 is just 2 lanes and the maximum width on the pavement is only 3 metres. How very surprising, then, to see (what appear to be) two 10m+ surveillance masts in the middle of the pavement, one at either side + either end of the shopping street:

I altered them to be mobile-phone masts before uplift, as I did not believe that Gedling council would be so gross as to place such eyesores in the street simply as CCTV cameras. However, after some thought I’ve reconsidered, and now think that yes, the police really are that insensitive. I’ve tagged one of them with “Big Brother?” to make it easier to find.

Coda

There were 2 buildings behind the main line of north-side Carlton shops that I needed to recheck (Little Bears nursery + Dolly’s Tearoom), and have just returned. Whilst back on-site I took the opportunity to ask about the mast.

The masts were erected at least 8 years ago – the owner of Bella Monty (the mast is outside her shop) moved on to the street in 2008 & the masts were already present. And yes; Gedling Council truly is that crass, because they are CCTV camera masts.

The folks at Dolly’s Vintage Tearoom (on the same block as the mast) were most dismissive of it. When they moved in some years ago they initially suffered some minor vandalism, probably from kids. The CCTV neither prevented the vandalism nor helped catch the kids.

I’ve altered the mast in question back to “man_made:surveillance”, and have removed the ‘?’ from “ref:Big Brother?”.

PS
Counting up, there are 9 hairdressers (out of 45 shops total) on just one side of this street in Carlton:

1. Strands
2. Bella Monty
3. Who’s Next Barbers + Rebecca’s Hair
4. Beautiful Nails
5. Reno & Paul Hairdressing
6. The Ink House
7. Kudos Beauty Clinic
8. Hair Finity
9. Wallis and Goodrich Hairdressing

That is 1 in every 5 shops in Carlton is a Hairdresser! Astonishing; but, I have to say, normal for Nottingham (I swear that Beeston, in the West of the city, has even more). And yes, I’ve naughtily included a Nail shop, a beauty clinic & a tatooist in the total, plus one of the shops is down a side-street (just), but I’ve also included all of the currently closed-down shops in the total number. Nottingham’s girls love getting their hair done so much that they are easily able to support an army of other women + some men to attend to their every need. And the council spends thousands of pounds to watch them do it.