I have blogged about Cobden Chambers before. It is a small independent retailers pitch hidden away on Pelham Street in Nottingham.

Ideas on Paper is there. Run by Alex Smith – this is an independent magazine shop. But it also sells notebooks and music. He’ll even make you a coffee. It’s not like Amazon…

Alex is at the heart of the Creative Quarter and absolutely what we have to do as a City to stave off the Claire’s Accessories effect. He is passionate about what he does. He knows his product. And he’s a nice guy.

We spoke about how hard it is to set up and the way in which this will all work – we are agreed that it is down to hard work. Like most things in life! It was slightly disappointing that he was among a handful of independent shops open on a Bank Holiday Monday! Claire’s Accessories was.

Alex appeared on the very trendy Monocle Radio show, The Stack, at the weekend. You can listen to it here – it starts at around 21 minutes. It tells the story of the shop and his background.

Esily worthy of inclusion on the list of great things about Nottingham – go seek him out – and tell him I sent you!