The places that make Nottingham: Council House, Nottingham Castle, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem and more, with what is on there next.
The domed civic building on Old Market Square, designed by T. Cecil Howitt and opened in 1929. Its dome rises about 200 feet (61 metres) above the square, and two stone lions guard the steps: "meet you by the lions" is the local way to arrange a meeting.
The Norman castle is long gone: what stands on the rock is a ducal mansion built in 1674 to 1679 for the 1st Duke of Newcastle, burnt in 1831 and turned into a museum and art gallery in 1876 to 1878. Cave tours go into Castle Rock and the Robin Hood statue stands outside. Entry is ticketed, and one ticket covers repeat visits through the year.
An inn built against the sandstone of Castle Rock, with rooms cut into the caves behind it. It claims 1189 as its founding year, but no documents support that date: the standing building is mostly 17th century, with caves behind it that may be older.
An Elizabethan mansion built between 1580 and 1588 for Sir Francis Willoughby, thought to be by Robert Smythson, in a park with herds of red and fallow deer. The hall holds the Natural History Museum and the outbuildings the Nottingham Industrial Museum. It stood in for Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises, and the hall and museums are open daily from 11 am except at Christmas.
A tour of the sandstone caves under the city, which have been a tannery, pub cellars and an air-raid shelter. It shows a medieval tannery cut into the rock, which the museum calls the only medieval underground tannery in the UK, and an Anderson air-raid shelter where thousands sought refuge in the Second World War. It belongs to the National Justice Museum.
The old Shire Hall and County Gaol on High Pavement in the Lace Market, a Grade II* listed building where criminal and civil courts once sat. It has a Victorian courtroom and a Georgian gaol, and opened as a museum in April 1995 as the Galleries of Justice.
A contemporary art gallery in the Lace Market, designed by Caruso St John and completed in 2009, with a lace pattern embossed in its concrete cladding. Entry is free (you book a slot and can leave a donation). It is closed on Mondays and open until 6 pm on Saturdays.
Nottingham's first public park, a 17-acre park designed by Samuel Curtis and opened on 11 May 1852. It is on Historic England's register as a Grade II* park, with a bandstand and tree trails, and it is free to walk through.
