Hine Hike: The Buildings of Thomas Chambers Hine

The Hine Hike kicks off outside Nottingham Playhouse on Sunday 25 October, from 2 pm to 4 pm. It's a guided walk led by historian and guide Lucy Brouwer, who also put together the Watson Fothergill Walk, and it spends two hours tracing the work of Thomas Chambers Hine (1813-1899).

Hine is described as possibly Nottingham's most prolific Victorian architect, and he's often called 'the father of the Midlands Architects'. The walk covers a good spread of his work across the city: the Park Estate, some of the biggest lace warehouses Nottingham ever saw, and the conversion of Nottingham Castle into the Midland Counties Art Museum. That gallery opened on 3 July 1878 and was the first provincial art gallery in England outside London. Hine served as the 5th Duke of Newcastle's Surveyor of Estates and later worked alongside his son, George Thomas Hine.

He had a life beyond the drawing board, too. He was a keen autograph hunter and published Nottingham, Its Castle in 1876, which is more of a scrapbook-like history of the building than a formal text. The walk itself runs for about two hours and covers 3km, so it's a steady pace rather than a sprint. You'll meet outside Nottingham Playhouse on Wellington Circus, NG1 5AF, and go from there. Advanced booking is essential because places are limited, so it's worth getting your spot sorted early if you're planning to join.