Here we are again, stuck into another lockdown. We might have learned how to deal with it from the previous one, but being locked home still feels like being in prison, especially for all those who love to travel and know no borders.
While waiting to explore new places, though, why not to start in our own city?
Take a day off from university work and enjoy this walking tour of Nottingham. You may end up being positively impressed!
1. Highfields Park and Nottingham Sign
Image credit: Nottingham Post
Start the tour from Highfields Park (or do it the opposite way, from 10 to 1.) Highfields Park is home to exotic plant life, a cascade and a boating lake, surmounted by the beautiful Lakeside Arts building.
Play areas and mini-golf are now closed, nevertheless, this means that you might enjoy the beautiful view without the usual weekend crowd disturbing your inner peace.
On the way to Wollaton Park stop at the colourful Nottingham Sign to take a tourist souvenir photo too!
2. Wollaton park
Image credit: Jessica Goddard
Visiting Wollaton Park, known worldwide thanks to Batman – The Dark Knight, might take half a day on its own. Its area is massive, 202 hectares, and it is home to more than 200 red and fallow deer.
Grab your camera and get ready to capture either the beautiful lake views, the formal gardens, the monumental Wollaton Hall or the fauna.
3. Banksy Painting
Image credit: BBC
People have lined up for days to take a picture of Nottingham’s 2020 highlight, Banksy’s new graffiti piece. Nottingham’s street art scene was already vibrant, but the famous artist’s work represents the icing on the cake.
Stop by the painting on your way to the city centre to have a look and reflect on its meaning in this specific historical period.
4. Church (Rock) Cemetery
Image credit: Pintrest
Visiting a cemetery might not sound very appealing, but give Nottingham’s Church Rock Cemetery a try to change your mind.
Walk through its gothic graves and sandstone caves, while enjoying the mysterious silence and the unique pieces of funerary art, especially the majestic angel monuments.
5. Arboretum
Image credit: TripAdvisor
Nottingham is home to multiple green areas where to escape reality, and the beautiful Arboretum park, the oldest one of the city, is fortunately still open during the lockdown. Admire its botanical collection and enjoy a good book on a bench before continuing the tour in the heart of Nottingham centre: you will feel relieved!
6. The park tunnel
Image credit: Atlas Obscura
This 150-year-old tunnel was designed in the XVII century to be the main entrance of the luxurious Park estate, but turned out to be too steep to be used from carriages and was left unused for decades. It reopened for pedestrians in the 1980s and represents a unique witness of Nottingham’s Victorian period, as well as a great location to visit.
7. Sky Mirror
Image credit: Thousand Wonders
Another public art gem in Nottingham is the Sky Mirror, a sculpture by Anish Kapoor installed in 2001 in Wellington Circus. It is impressive how this simple piece of art might change according to the hour and the weather and how it provides another point of view of the beautiful theatre building.
8. Robin Hood Statue
Image credit: TripAdvisor
Nottingham would not be as known as it is without Robin Hood’s legend, therefore any proper tour of the city should pay homage to it. While all the tourist attractions such as Robin Hood experience are closed, just have a closer look of the statue right outside Nottingham castle and to its illustrated plaques, which provide an insight into the tale.
9. Sneinton Market and Sneinton Dragon
Image credit: UK Indymedia
Sneinton Market might seem quite dead during the lockdown, but no time is better than now to enjoy its colourful graffiti and street art, which are the work of multiple UK artists and two acclaimed Chinese illustrators.
The Chinese vibe in the Sneinton area does not end here. Look for the giant dragon-shaped stainless sculpture, right at the corner of Sneinton Hermitage and Manvers street.
10. Promenade
Image credit: OnTheMarket
The final destination of this lockdown walking tour of Nottingham is the colourful Promenade with its aesthetic pastel houses, right next to Victoria Park. This is not a tourist attraction, but its Mediterranean looking buildings are not to be seen anywhere else in the city, and will for sure cheer you up during an average lockdown day, as well as providing another excellent subject for a souvenir photo of this day as a tourist in your own city!
Written by Jessica Piazzi
Feature image credit: Kirsty Lemm – @klemm.design