It could never claim to be one of the prettiest streets in Nottingham. Sliced in half by the development of Maid Marian Way nearly half a century ago, what history and architectural merit that Mount Street had was largely destroyed.
Today, it is just another anonymous city street, dominated by offices, a hotel and a multi-storey car park. There is little to provide any links to its fascinating history.
It was known 500 years ago as Bearward Lane, so-called because it was the scene of bear baiting, a popular pastime in those days.
But down the years it was also home to several businesses and residential properties.
Many of the stories about the street centre on the Baptist Church cemetery there, which was used up to the mid-19th century before the General Cemetery was developed.
DON'T MISS:Nottingham man who threatened to jump off Trent Bridge turns his life around
'No one wants us', say Nottingham asylum seekers who could be moved on to old ferries
Nottinghamshire salon named one of the best in the country
One of those stories features a chap called George Vason, who was living and working in Nottingham and was described as something of a tearaway until he found God and the Baptist church.
At the age of 25, he gave up his feckless life to volunteer for a dangerous voyage to the South Seas.
His ship, The Duff, had to battle through ferocious storms as it rounded the Cape of Good Hope, giant waves battering the vessel for days as it sailed to the Friendly Islands before the group of English missionaries on board finally sighted land.
The group, dressed in their tailcoats, high stockings, knee breeches and buckled shoes, were greeted by the island king wearing a girdle made from tree bark, a crown of feathers and a sharks’ teeth necklace.
The year was 1797 and the 19 missionaries had gone to the Pacific island hoping to befriend the native people and spread the word of the gospel.
Over the coming days they were left at different islands – George, and eight others, settling on Tonga.
Over the coming weeks and months, George Vason began wearing tribal clothes, learning the Tongan language and covering his body with traditional tattoos.
He was, he later wrote, “approaching a period of my life in which I disgraced my character as a Christian”.
He lived with the tribal chief, a man who had between four and eight wives at any given time. George admits: “In truth, the various temptations to which, till now, I had been an entire stranger, were too pleasing to the inclinations and tastes of a young man of 25.”
His final step was to accept a gift from the chief ... of one of his relations as a wife.
George became an influential figure in the community, a landowner and farmer: “As my prosperity and consequence advanced, my depravity gathered strength and I increased the number of my wives.”
He fought in a local civil war, witnessing acts of savagery, even cannibalism.
But in January 1800 a ship bound for England called at the island. George decided to return home and, after struggling to convince them he was English and not a native, he was taken aboard.
He returned to Nottingham, his arrival causing great excitement. He lodged with a local family and in 1804 he met and married Mary Leavers. He eventually became town gaoler, on a handsome salary of £200 a year.
The couple lived happily in the gaoler’s house on Weekday Cross but produced no children and when Mary died in 1837, he had little left to live for.
He died in July 1838 at the age of 66 and was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in the Baptist Burial Ground in Mount Street.
The cemetery was also the last resting place of city magistrate Alderman John Barber, a former Sheriff of Nottingham, who died in 1856 at the age of 80.
He was lucky to survive that long. In 1820, someone tried to assassinate him as he chatted with a customer in his Hollowstone shop.
From out of the dark came a blast from a horse-pistol or blunderbuss but the would-be killer missed his target. The attempt on the life of a high-ranking citizen led to a hue and cry with a £515 reward being offered (worth £42,000 today).
Speculation centred on someone who had been on the receiving end of Mr Barber’s strict dispensation of justice in the town courts, who was out for revenge.
More crimes were to take place in Mount Street. In August 1800, George Caunt, a respectable hairdresser, was accused of stealing a set of curtains. When constable George Ball arrived to arrest him, he was shot dead.
Caunt was put behind bars in Alfreton gaol, but cheated the hangman by poisoning himself.
He was buried on the Sandhills but during the night his body was removed by his friends to the Baptist burial ground, although no one could ever identify his grave.
Mount Street was also home to the Oldknow family, who provided two 18th century town mayors.
The hosiery company I&R Morley was founded in a yard off Mount Street and before that it was also a key location in the lace industry, with a man named Joshua Tarratt carrying out pioneering work on a lace machine.
Mount Street was also home to the business of well-known 18th century historian William Hutton, who was a bookseller who was perhaps not very successful.
When he needed to travel to London to obtain fresh stock, he would walk the 120 miles, with his money sewn up in his shirt collar in a bid to thwart the highwaymen who preyed on lonely travellers.
In the 20th century, Mount Street’s biggest claim to fame was the location of a bus station, used by leading companies including Trent and Barton.
The trade bible, Kelly's Directory, shows that in 1956 Mount Street had a mix of business and residential premises.
Among them was the Hearty Goodfellow pub - which became the 4,550 Miles from Delhi restaurant in 2002 - Billy's Cafe and the Carlton Cinema.
READ MORE: Stacey Solomon shares 'saddest photoshoot ever' as she undergoes mini-transformation
