What is today a bustling Nottingham street, typically alive with merry revellers, Forman Street was once understood to be part of the city's 'red-light district'. Its history as such is evident in the story of High Court judge, Sir Charles James Watkin Williams, who had been visiting the city on circuit in 1884 when he met his untimely end at a brothel.
An attempt to cover up the 56-year-old's death from a heart attack, while he was with sex worker Nellie Blankey, was made by his servants. But the truth of what happened that night, in the building now inhabited by Italian restaurant chain Prezzo, eventually came out in court.
Sir Charles suffered a fatal heart attack on July 17 to the shock of Ms Blankey and her boss quickly called the police to inform them of his passing. However, in a last-ditch attempt to conceal his activities that very night, servants from Shire Hall hurried over and took his body back to the judges' lodging in High Pavement.
