I put the original version of this description of Nottingham on ‘Where I’ve Been’, well, it’s more like an extended list than a description, which is down to my writing skills, lack of that is, but I love living in Nottingham. It’s an outstanding city.
Nottingham is a vibrant city, with first-class shopping attracting millions of people every year and consistently ranked in the top five UK shopping destinations. There are over 1,300 outlets; independent retailers, designer boutiques and high street favourites, with shoppers spending around £1.8 billion a year.
The city’s famous Old Market Square is the largest public square outside of London and is dominated by the 200 foot high dome of the Council House, the traditional centre for Nottingham City Council.
The left and right stone lions that guard the entrance to the Council House are a popular meeting place for local people.
There are cosy pubs, stylish bars and vibrant nightclubs, making Nottingham the regional capital for nightlife and live music.
The city has a huge variety of live music venues and a pioneering art and culture scene, there are contemporary and classical theatres, the Motorpoint Arena and art galleries such as the Nottingham Contemporary and New Art Exchange.
Nottingham Castle houses a museum and art gallery and has superb grounds with views across the city and over the Trent valley. There are also museums and spectacular parks at Wollaton Hall and Newstead Abbey, along with many other parks and gardens. The city’s Arboretum was the first designated public park in Nottingham and officially opened on 11 May 1852.
There are all sorts of places to visit and things to do. The fascinating Galleries of Justice Museum is based in Nottingham’s old courthouse and gaol, and takes you through the dark and disturbing past of crime and punishment. There is the award winning City of Caves visitor attraction, exploring the amazing sandstone caves beneath Nottingham city centre, the Museum of Nottingham Life at Brewhouse Yard, depicting the social history of Nottingham over the last 300 years and Green’s Windmill, a popular museum and science centre.
Nottingham has award winning and cosmopolitan cuisine; there are more than 300 cafes and restaurants just in the city centre, offering more international food outlets per square mile than anywhere else in the UK.
For anyone interested in sport there are first-rate facilities and entertainment at venues such as Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, Forest’s City Ground and County’s Meadow Lane for football, the National Ice Centre, Nottingham Racecourse, the National Water Sports Centre and the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Nottingham has two of the country’s foremost universities, Nottingham University and Trent University, and has the third largest student population in England, with more than 55,000 students at the universities alone.
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A fantastic piece on Nottingham – good to see some recognition of the fantastic place it is for a change instead of the usual stuff that is written about it.
Before I made lj friends with Christine, I only knew the name of your city and where it is on the map. You both share love to your beautiful city and its heritage and lavishly share it with your followers. I highly appreciate your description of places you’ve been to and your outstanding photography.
Thank you Tamara, Nottingham is a great city, I love living here :^)
No wonder – it’s so beautiful, it’s architecture is stunning! It’s so rich in culture! I can see it is very clean too.
I love living in Novosibirsk too. It can’t boast of a long-term history though. We will celebrate its 119th annyversary in June. Anyway, it’s beautiful and its cultural life is rich too.
Thanks Tamara, Nottingham does have a lot going for it, although I’m sure you realise that I’ve only photographed some of the good bits! We have our fair share of urban problems like any city.
Novosibirsk looks really interesting. I see what you mean about being quite a young place; a bit like some North American cities that grew up around the railways as they were built.
It’s a lot larger than Nottingham; even if you include the whole conurbation of Greater Nottingham, the city is still only half the size of Novosibirsk.
As you noticed it exactly, Novosibirsk is huge in territiry ( as probably everything in Russia and Siberia where a thousand roubles is no money and a thousand kilometres is no distance) The vastness of it doesn’t save it from traffic jams though. Nottingham, being so comact, is the least dependent on cars city in GB, if my memory serves me right.
But there’s a lot to to be proud of being a citizen of my city.