City artwork could be lost with car park demolition
BBCHilary Cartmel admits she never expected this artwork to last quite so long.
"It was basically conceived on the back of a cigarette packet," says the artist who was commissioned in 1986 to brighten up a gloomy wall in Nottingham city centre.
"I sketched out an idea very roughly... expecting to go away and do a lot more work."
Instead, she says, the order came to not do any more because council planners were pleased and wanted to get it installed as soon as possible.
The end result of that process was the 'Traffic Flow' artwork, which clings to the corrugated concrete wall beneath the NCP Maid Marian Way car park.
But now, nearly 40 years on, it could be demolished after plans to bulldoze the car park it is attached to gained approval.
SuppliedDespite the hasty design process, the 68-year-old says the artwork represents a "kind of movement", inspired by the "dancing" of traffic lights and cars stopping and starting.
"It's kind of like a rolling form, everyone's rushing forward, trying to get out of wherever they are and onto the next place," she said.
Meanwhile the choice of material, stainless steel, was a practical one.
"It would require no maintenance. That was really important. If we put it in mild steel or wooden panels it would have rusted, it would have crumbled," she said.
"Although I remember spending £3,000 on the steel and my father had a fit, thinking I was mad, before I told him I wasn't paying for it, the council was."
She continued: "I think it's wonderful that people still care about it 40 years on. It's theirs now, not mine, it's a part of their daily life going past it."
She added that she holds no ill-will over the impending loss of the artwork, saying it was "of its time" and that time had moved on.
"Nottingham is a hugely changing city and this is just one little detail in it," she said.
The Twentieth Century Society, which focuses on preserving architecture from 1914 onwards, described the late 20th Century as "a time of great experimentation and exuberance for public art".
Speaking on Traffic Flow, a spokesperson said: "Even though Maid Marian Way was once derided as the as 'the ugliest street in Europe', Nottingham locals clearly have a real affection for the mural.
"Surely it would be relatively easy to relocate or recreate and incorporate into the exciting new vision for Broadmarsh?"
The idea that Traffic Flow could be relocated is shared by Ian Wells, secretary of the Nottingham Civic Society.
He said it could be dismounted and moved, or the pattern could be reproduced.
However, he also clarified that "no-one would be in a rush" to save it by keeping the car park.
"I don't condemn Brutalist architecture at all, but sometimes there are things with conservation that must be saved at all costs... and others things that you let go," he said.
So is there still hope that, the artwork at least, may survive even longer?
Nottingham City Council told the BBC it would be up to the landowner to decide its future.
That landowner, government agency Homes England, said no plans had been drawn up to preserve the artwork.
However, a spokesperson added that public art would form part of the future redevelopment of the site, and the agency would consult with "local stakeholders" at a later date.
The government housing and regeneration agency Homes England purchased the Broad Marsh site in March 2025.
This included the NCP car park, as well as the former Bluecoat sixth form college on Maid Marian Way.
This was given the green light on 2 February as Nottingham City Council decided that prior approval was not required.
The agency is expected to take control of the car park in September, but no timescale for the demolition work has been shared.
The car park operator NCP also said it does not yet have a confirmed closure date for the Maid Marian Way car park.
Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.
