New home for Nottingham’s Emett water clock

©Matt Buck used under Creative Commons license

Nottingham’s Emett Clock is to return to the Victoria Centre by the summer in a new location on the upper floor outside the Disney store.

The clock, installed in the centre in 1973, was taken to Birmingham last February where the Rowland Emett Society gave it a thorough make-over.

It then took up residence at the Millennium Point in Birmingham as part of the biggest ever exhibition of Emett’s work.

Nigel Wheatley, general manager of intu Victoria Centre, says: “The Emett Clock is a really important part of the Victoria Centre’s heritage to which the people of Nottingham are emotionally attached, so we are very much looking forward to it’s return.”

Rowland Emett: artist, cartoonist and inventor

  • Emett was born in London in 1906 as the son of a businessman and amateur inventor, and the grandson of Queen Victoria’s engraver.
  • He began drawing cartoons in World War Two when he worked for the Air Ministry. From 1939 until the 1950s and less frequently in the 1960s he was published regularly in Punch.
  • He gradually turned to designing what he called, “things” – always with silly names like The Featherstone-Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentleman’s Flying Machine.
  • In 1968 he designed the elaborate inventions of Caractacus Potts (play by Dick Van Dyke) for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
  • On January 20 1973 the Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator was unveiled in the Victoria Centre.

Nigel says: “It’s new home on the upper mall will allow us to make the most of what is undoubtedly an important Nottingham landmark – the combination of natural light and full ceiling height in this area will give the clock a grand position in the centre.”

The clock will have a new purpose built pool, a plaque telling its story and a glass balustrade surrounding it.

Work to return the clock has already started and is expected to take several weeks as the finishing touches are completed and is expected to be back in the centre by the summer.

Nigel added: “Our customers are going to be in for a real treat when the clock is unveiled.”

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