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“It has everything you could ask for: great nightlife, a vibrant arts scene, rich history and lots of green space,” Tom Suchoruczka, a Nottingham-born half-Ukrainian professor of geography and politics, tells me.
As we admire the view from a park bench in Colwick Woods nature reserve, taking in Colwick Hall, one of the Byron family’s ancestral homes, and the wider Trent Valley, it’s hard to disagree. However, Nottingham, while beloved by the locals, tends to get overlooked when it comes to tourism. Maybe it’s time for that to change.
Its largely well-preserved and traffic-free town center with distinctive flagstone pavements, labyrinthine lanes called ‘twitchels’, England’s largest medieval market square and Lace Market, an atmospheric remnant of England’s industrial past. Britain packed with 14th century converted warehouses, pubs and shops. 19th century churches, it’s just the beginning.
There’s modern, Shoreditch-esque Hockley, with great cafes like Kigali, standout restaurants like Mesa and The Angel Microbrewery. There’s Sneinton Market, similar to Spitalfields, full of independent businesses and home to the street food/brewery combo Bustler.
Fantastic Victorian architecture abounds, from the likes of Watson Fothergill, as well as exquisite Art Nouveau designs, in the form of the early Boots the Chemist stores (the original, in Goosegate, is now a restaurant; the one in Pelham Street is a Zara ). The monumental 1930s-era town hall building is reminiscent of St Paul’s Cathedral, and emanates from it retail stores that include all the high street brands you could want, as well as old-school watchmakers, chocolatiers and wine merchants. and centenary delicatessen.
Beneath the city lie hundreds of caves, dug out of the soft sandstone by residents 1,000 years ago. They can be seen on an underground tour or by visiting one of the many cave pubs attached, such as Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem at the base of Nottingham Castle, said to date from 1189 (a dubious claim, though certainly several centuries old). antiquity). ). The list of historic pubs is impressive and includes novelties such as the Malt Cross, one of the few surviving Victorian music halls in the country. A handful of Michelin-starred and fine-dining restaurants offer a more refined experience; among those worth trying are Kushi-Ya and Iberico World Tapas.
Leave the city center behind and there is so much more to see. Just three miles to the west, Wollaton Hall, an extravagant Elizabethan mansion set in hundreds of acres of parkland dotted with ancient oaks, is free to enter, though it’s well worth spending £12 on their Hidden History Tour, which takes you to normally closed. outside areas, from the rooftop to the kitchens and underground tunnels. In part of the house stable is the Nottingham Industrial Museum, an easily missed treasure trove of monuments to the city’s industrial history, from lace machines and steam engines to Raleigh bicycles and the only surviving example of the Celer automobile. 8 horsepower engine built in Nottingham, dating from 1904 and precursor to the Ford Model T.
“I trace the beginning of the Industrial Revolution back to Nottingham,” Roger Clifford, a museum volunteer, told me. “In 1589, so the story goes, William Lee of Calverton was doing his best to meet an unmarried local lady who knitted mittens, socks and stockings for a living. However, every time he would get close to her, she would say, ‘Sorry, I’m too busy knitting.’ Instead of taking the hint, he went off and invented this thing we’re looking at: the stocking framework.” Building on this first step in the mechanization of the textile industry, Roger’s hour-long tour includes many other Nottingham innovations, including the first above-ground wagon track, built in 1603 to transport coal between Strelley and Wollaston and vital for the development of railways.
Nine miles to the north and also owned by Nottingham City Council, is Newstead Abbey, Byron’s other ancestral home, but later sold to Thomas Wildman, his old school friend and heir to a Jamaican plantation fortune. Visitors can see the writer’s former bedroom, the Great Hall where he apparently kept a bear, and a variety of manicured gardens and lakes.
It all adds up to a city break to rival places like Oxford and York. So why is Nottingham only the 18th most popular town or city in the UK, according to Visit Britain?
Chris Matthews, a Nottingham-born graphic designer and historian, suggested that the city may be underappreciated today because it is “difficult to define in simple terms”. “Is it Midlands or North, historic or modern, provincial or metropolitan, radical or conservative, grim or urban?”
Herein lies much of its appeal. “It’s a historic place, an old county town in a very natural setting,” Matthews said. “However, it’s also very modern, a product of the industrial revolution, so there’s often been a real push to do things incrementally. There’s broad-minded skepticism and plenty of black humor. If you have a predetermined theory about history and design, then Nottingham is not for you. But if you’re curious, creative, and open-minded, you’ll enjoy its complexity and nuance.”
