What to See in Nottingham - Top Sights and Attractions

Art gallery in Nottingham, England. Nottingham Castle is a once-fortified castle in Nottingham, England, later replaced by a Georgian-era mansion. In the Middle Ages it was an important royal fortress and occasional royal residence. In decline by the 16th century, the original Castle was largely demolished in 1651 aside from its walls and gates. The site occupies a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "Castle Rock", with cliffs 130 feet high to the south and west which dominates the city skyline.

William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle later built a mansion on the site in the 1670s, which was completed by his son, Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle. This ducal palace was burnt down by rioters in 1831 and left as a ruin for over 40 years. It was rebuilt in the 1870s to house an art gallery and museum, which remain in use. Little of the original castle survives other than the gatehouse and parts of the ramparts, but sufficient portions remain to give an impression of the layout of the site.

Although Nottingham City Council owns the Castle, it is operated by an independent, charitable trust called the Nottingham Castle Trust. The castle closed for a major refurbishment from 2018 and reopened on 21 June 2021.^[2]

Large park with a boating lake and cafe. Highfields Park is Grade II listed park providing 121 acres of public space, in the west of Nottingham, England. It is owned and maintained by Nottingham City Council. It located alongside University Boulevard, adjoining the University of Nottingham's University Park campus. Due to its proximity to the university campus to the north, Highfields Park appears to be a part of the campus itself and therefore many refer to the whole area as University Park. There are historical ties between the park and the campus. The park contains a boating lake, complete with boats to hire throughout the summer months. The cascade and the stepping stones at the western end are Grade II listed. To the south of the lake the Tottle Brook, a tributary of the River Trent, flows on the surface, this brook is culverted for much of its length. At the eastern end there are children's play facilities and a pavilion with a cafe.^[7]

Tourist attraction in Nottingham, England. City of Caves is a visitor attraction in Nottingham based on a network of caves, carved out of sandstone that have been variously used over the years as a tannery, public house cellars, and as an air raid shelter. The caves are listed as a scheduled monument by Historic England under the name Caves at Drury Hill, Drury Hill being the medieval street under which they were formerly located until it was demolished to make way for the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. The newer City of Caves name refers to the fact that the city of Nottingham has hundreds of man-made caves, which have been in use for over a thousand years.

The City of Caves was accessed from the upper level of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre but can currently be accessed from Garner's Hill due to construction works in the Broadmarsh Centre, scheduled to finish in 2021. The attraction, part of the National Justice Museum, has been run by the Egalitarian Trust since opening 2004.^[8]

Museum in England. The Nottingham Industrial Museum is a volunteer-run museum situated in part of the 17th-century stables block of Wollaton Hall, located in a suburb of the city of Nottingham. The museum won the Nottinghamshire Heritage Site of the Year Award 2012, a local accolade issued by Experience Nottinghamshire. The Museum collection closed in 2009 after Nottingham City Council withdrew funding, but has since reopened at weekends and bank holidays, helped by a £91,000 government grant, and run by volunteers. The museum contains a display of local textiles machinery, transport, telecommunications, mining and engineering technology. There is a display of cycles, motorcycles, and motor cars. There are examples of significant lace-making machinery. It also houses an operational beam engine, from the Basford, Nottingham pumping station.^[9]

Church in Nottingham, England. The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest religious foundation in the City of Nottingham, England, the largest church after the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Nottingham and the largest mediaeval building in the city.

The church is Grade I listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a building of outstanding architectural or historic interest. It is one of only five Grade I listed buildings in the City of Nottingham.

It is situated on High Pavement at the heart of the historic Lace Market district and is also known as St Mary's in the Lace Market. It is a member of the Major Churches Network, and part of the parish of All Saints', St Mary's and St Peter's, Nottingham.^[11]

Stadium in Nottingham, England. Meadow Lane Stadium is a football stadium in Nottingham, England. It is the home ground of Notts County, who have played there since it opened in 1910. The stadium was also home to Notts County Ladies F.C. from 2014 until 2017.

It currently has an all-seated capacity of 18,816 for National League games, although its maximum capacity is 20,229. The record attendance is 47,310, who watched Notts lose 1–0 to York City in the FA Cup Sixth Round on 12 March 1955. The highest all-seater attendance is 17,615, for the League Two play-off semi-final against Coventry City on 18 May 2018.

Meadow Lane lies just three hundred yards (270 metres) away from the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest. Divided by the River Trent, the two grounds are the closest in England and second-closest in the United Kingdom after Dundee and Dundee United. The Trent End of the City Ground is visible from parts of the Jimmy Sirrel stand and the Spion Kop.

The stadium also hosts the men's and women's football in the Varsity Series – a sporting series contested by Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.^[15]

Park in Nottingham, England. Arboretum is a residential area of the City of Nottingham in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. The arboretum from which the neighbourhood takes its name was the first designated public park in Nottingham selected under the authority of the Inclosure Act 1845. The botanist and horticultural publisher, Samuel Curtis, oversaw the design of the park, on 11 May 1852, the park was officially opened. The park was opened by the Mayor of Nottingham, the lace manufacturer Mr W Felkin, and the Sheriff of the Borough of Nottingham, a Mr Ball, in front of a crowd of 30,000 people. It is Grade II* listed.

The park was designed as a botanical collection, in the "natural order", and as a tranquil place in which to relax, forming a major attraction in the heart of Victorian Nottingham. From 1852 it was open free of charge on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, but was 6d admission (equivalent to £2.78 in 2020) on other days, or £1 (equivalent to £111.09 in 2020) for a yearly permit.

The Arboretum has become one of Nottingham's 'green lungs' and is a Green Flag-winning park. It is the city's oldest public park and also the closest park to the city centre. The park currently still contains more than 800 trees belonging to 65 species.

Refreshment rooms built in the Tudor style were opened in 1852 to the designs of Henry Moses Wood by James Ebrank Hall, builder, with a banqueting hall occupying the entire frontage. The building also comprised a Ladies’ room, Refectory and Kitchen. An entrance hall and staircase led to three chambers upstairs. The whole building was constructed of brick with stone facings and was castellated along the front. The wings of the refreshment rooms were demolished in 1932. The remainder of the building traded as a hotel and restaurant and as a pub as The Arboretum Rooms, The Arboretum pub (also known as The pub in the Park), Arboretum Hotel and Arboretum Manor. In 1965 the building was severely damaged by fire and had to be almost completely rebuilt. In 2006, another fire resulted in its demolition.

The Circular Aviary was opened in 1889 with the original cast-iron uprights and roof struts covered with modern steel mesh. The Main Aviary of brick was constructed in 1955/6. The Upper Aviary was built in 1934 to house tropical birds.

The first bandstand was moved here from the green in Nottingham Castle in 1881 and placed in front of the Refreshment Rooms. The bandstand was replaced in 1907 with a new one designed by Frank Beckett Lewis the City Architect.

There have been many functions held at The Arboretum including the annual Nottingham Pride festival.

English Heritage has designated the site Grade II* status on the Register of Historic Parks & Gardens and the park's Bell Tower, bandstand and Circular Aviary have all received Grade II listing protection.

'Arboretum' was also the name of a ward in the City of Nottingham until 2019, when it was merged with the Hyson Green ward to form the Hyson Green and Arboretum ward. At the time of the 2011 census, the former Arboretum ward had a population of 13,321.^[24]

Sculpture by Anish Kapoor. Sky Mirror is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse, it is installed outside the theatre in Wellington Circus, Nottingham, England. Sky Mirror is a 6-metre-wide -wide concave dish of polished stainless steel weighing 10 tonnes and angled up towards the sky. Its surface reflects the ever-changing environment.

It took six years from the initial idea for a major new piece of public art to the unveiling of Sky Mirror on 27 April 2001, and cost £900,000. At the time, it was the most expensive piece of civic art funded by the National Lottery. It was manufactured in Finland.

In autumn 2007 the Nottingham Playhouse Sky Mirror was voted Pride of Place in a poll to find Nottingham's favourite landmark. More recently, Sky Mirror has been installed in Brighton's Pavilion Gardens for the Brighton Festival.

From 19 September to 27 October 2006, a larger version of Sky Mirror was installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City. It had a 35 foot (11 m) diameter, stood three stories tall, and weighed 23 long tons (23 t). The convex side faced Fifth Avenue, the concave side the Rockefeller Center courtyard.

Versions of Sky Mirror also exist in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in front of the Casino de Monte-Carlo in Monaco and in the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

From 28 September 2010, Sky Mirror and three other Kapoor sculptures were exhibited in Kensington Gardens, London. The open-air exhibition was titled Turning the World Upside Down and it ran until 13 March 2011. It was accessible from 6 a.m. until dusk. Kapoor said that Kensington Gardens was "the best site in London for a piece of art, probably in the world". The location of Sky Mirror was previously occupied by a sculpture by Henry Moore – a work that was donated by the artist, but had been removed for conservation in 1996. Kapoor's sculptures are guarded round-the-clock at a cost estimated to be £120,000 paid for by the Royal Parks Agency.

Sky Mirror's permanent installation is at Dallas Cowboys Art Collection at AT&T Stadium.^[32]

Wilkinson Street is a tram stop on Nottingham Express Transit, in the city of Nottingham suburb of Basford. The tram stop opened on 9 March 2004, along with NET's initial system. It is one of several park and ride stops on the NET network, with more than 600 car parking spaces located next to the stop. NET's Wilkinson Street depot is also adjacent to the stop, and provides storage and maintenance facilities for all the system's trams, having been expanded to cope with the additional trams ordered for phase two. The depot also contains NET's offices, staff facilities and control room.

The tram stop is located on reserved track alongside Wilkinson Street and has two side platforms flanking a pair of tracks. To the west, the tracks cross over the Robin Hood railway line on a bridge shared with Wilkinson Street, and then curve and descend to run parallel with the railway to Basford stop. To the east of the stop, there is a triangular junction that gives access to the depot, and the two tracks then cross each other and run separately in two different street alignments. Trams heading towards the city centre next call at Radford Road stop, whilst trams coming from the city centre do so via Shipstone Street stop.

With the opening of NET's phase two, Wilkinson Street is now on the common section of the NET, where line 1, between Hucknall and Chilwell, and line 2, between Phoenix Park and Clifton, operate together. Trams on each line run at frequencies that vary between 4 and 8 trams per hour, depending on the day and time of day, combining to provide up to 16 trams per hour on the common section.^[33]