Town and Country Planning Class of 1969 reunion
13 December 2017
In December, a group of former Town and Country Planning students met up in Nottingham, fifty years after starting their postgraduate course in 1967. Of the event, alumna Jane Taussik said:
"In September 1967, sixteen students registered at the Nottingham College of Art and Design to do the Royal Town Planning Institute’s recognised 2-year post graduate course in Town and Country Planning. The course was run in the college’s York House annexe on Mansfield Road.
Fifty years later, in early December 2017, eleven of those students met again for a very interesting weekend in Nottingham, most of them not having met in the intervening years. As well as an enormous amount of talking and eating, there was a talk about, and a trip on, Nottingham’s very successful tram system and a planner-led tour of the central area of the city. Although the street pattern was little changed, many of the group found themselves in very unfamiliar surroundings where landmark buildings had been replaced or new open spaces created.
The group was fortunate in choosing the weekend of an Open Day at Nottingham Trent University for their visit. Nottingham College of Art and Design became part of Trent Polytechnic during the time the group were studying. This, in turn, became the current university. While they recognised both the Newton and Arkwright buildings and remembered plumbing students going in and out on Thursday evenings with their bags of tools, they did not recognise the current access arrangements and general circulation spaces. They were very impressed with the linkage of the two buildings, the open spaces created and the restoration of the old chemistry laboratory now available for special events. Sadly for them, the 1960s office block, York House, had passed the way of many of the buildings they were familiar with – it was demolished a couple of years ago.
After graduating in 1969, all of the group embarked on planning careers. Most remained as planners, branching out into various aspects of the public, private and educational sectors but a couple opted out into rather different, but equally successful, careers. They were all delighted to hear that the institution which served them so well has become this year’s University of the Year."