Artwork on doomed city car park to be saved

An artwork installed on the wall of a car park set for demolition will be saved.

The piece, named Traffic Flow, was commissioned in 1986 to help brighten up a corrugated concrete wall beneath the NCP car park in Maid Marian Way in Nottingham.

Homes England, the government's housing and regeneration agency, bought the site in March 2025, and plans to bulldoze the car park as part of a wider project in the Broad Marsh area of the city.

It confirmed the piece would be removed and relocated to a new home.

Art charity Backlit said it was hoping to collect the artwork later this month and relocate it at its gallery in the former textiles factory Alfred House in the city.

The organisation said it hoped to work with the artist on how it could be "reconfigured for its new setting".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said Nottingham City Council had not retained another artwork by Cartmel, the Chorus Line sculpture, on the corner of Park Row and Maid Marian Way.

That piece was scrapped after a new artwork, commissioned to replace it, was unveiled in July.

Cartmel, who first came up with the idea for Traffic Flow on the back of a cigarette packet, previously said it remained in place for much longer than she imagined.

She said 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 told the BBC.

Nottingham Women's History Group (NWHG) said it was happy about saving another work by a female artist.

The group's chair Sian Trafford, said: "We as Nottingham Women's History Group are just thrilled that we are not going to lose another work by a woman artist – and indeed the same woman artist.

"We need to be vigilant and not take anything for granted and keep visiting these works of art and just keep checking that they're there."

In August, Homes England said demolition contractors would be appointed to tear down the car park in the coming months, saying the work was due to begin in the Autumn.

The agency also said it was also in the process of appointing a developer for the Broad Marsh area redevelopment with an announcement due in the new year.

Large parts of the former shopping centre site have remained derelict since operators Intu went into administration in 2020, but demolition work is now under way.

A spokesperson for Homes England said: "We can confirm the Traffic Flow piece will be removed from its existing location prior to the demolition of the NCP car park and relocated to a new home in Nottingham.

"Our contractors are working with local arts charity, Backlit, to find the best long-term home for the artwork. "

They added that once confirmed, the details would be published on their website.

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