Nottingham: Where Tradition Meets Change (England)

Welcome to Nottingham. This English city is best known for its industrial lace heritage, its associations with the legend of Robin Hood and its intricate cave network. In this travel guide we're going to show you the best of the city, including top attractions and hidden gems. We're beginning our time in Nottingham in the Lace Market district. Now this area is so called because during the middle of the 19th century this was the heart of the global trade of lace and there wasn't necessarily a market or a street here per se but instead lots of wholesalers, vendors and shops displaying their lacewares. There are a few spots of interest in this area, most notably there's the National Justice Museum where you can learn about the history of law making and the justice system from the 18th century right up until the present day. We've come to Pitcher and Piano. This is a former Unitarian chapel that was built in 1876. It was closed for worship in 1982 and now has been transformed into this beautiful space where you can still admire the stained glass window while sipping on your drink. One of the oldest buildings in the Lace Market district here in Nottingham is the Church of St Mary's. It was built all the way back in the middle ages. If you head inside into the lady chapel then you'll actually find a connection to the local lace making of the area because at the front of this chapel you'll find a stained glass window and on it is depicted a very ornate wedding dress. This was the dress of Catherine Dade Walton who unfortunately did pass away just one week after her wedding of the Spanish influenza. We were lucky enough to get to talk to the priest and he told us some very interesting history facts about this church. For example, most of the windows in here are actually Victorian but during the Victorian restoration they actually discovered some medieval glass and it can be found in this window. The church also allegedly has a connection to Robin Hood and that's because of a 14th century ballad called Robin Hood and the Monk. The story goes that Robin Hood comes to the church, he goes in front of the rude screen, he kneels, he prays for his sins to be forgiven and actually at that time a monk working in the church recognises him and he says wait that is the guy that stole £100 from me so he calls the sheriff. The sheriff comes with all of his men, Robin Hood ends up killing lots of his men and he even injures the sheriff. Eventually he's captured and he's imprisoned in a building on which the Contemporary Art Museum is now built. Because it's not immediately obvious, lots of people don't know this, but Nottingham actually has the biggest concentration of caves anywhere in the UK. There's hundreds of them. Snenton was once a village in its own right that's since been absorbed into the fabric of Nottingham. You'll know you're in the right place because you'll come to the Snenton dragon which marks the boundary. This metal sculpture was voted in by a competition by the public. The public were asked what do you want to create and they said a dragon and there are a few other gems of this district which we're going to show you now. One of the main reasons to come to Snenton is to visit Snenton Market. This revitalised area is full of cafes, bars, shops and independent artists selling their works. There are a number of food vendors in the market and so we tried some of the tasty snacks before meeting some of the local vendors. Hello my name is Charlie and this is the Watered Garden. It's a plant shop in Snenton Market which I own with my partner Louis. Do you know anything about the history of this market area? I know that it used to be a fruit and veg market back in the day. I think it closed in the kind of 1970s, 1980s and then it sat derelict for quite a while and was redeveloped by the EU. I think it was around 2013. It was like a development grant for creative spaces, independent workshops and artists. So how long have you had the shop here? We have had it since June 2023. Before that it was still a plant shop which was running for about six years. I worked at that plant shop briefly and then me and my partner took over. The previous owners who are Becca and Chris, I want to give a little shout out to because they created this place to begin with. They very, very kindly offered me and Louis to take it over. Okay so that was going to be my next question, why Snenton Market, but that kind of answer the question. It was already here, yeah. They chose it because it was this kind of new and upcoming space that was really putting creativity and independent makers at the centre. And so more personally, why plants? What drew you to running a plant shop? Because it's not something you hear every day. I've always enjoyed growing plants and I have my mum to thank for that. She's an amazing gardener but I got into indoor gardening during my years at uni and I loved uni but when I left I very quickly realised that fine art doesn't get you many jobs so I was unemployed for quite a while and the only thing that really consistently brought me joy was growing my plants. I think they just add so much life to indoor spaces and it's the closest I can get to living in the woods right now. Have you always lived in Nottingham? Were you somewhere else before? No yeah, so I moved here for uni which is now about a decade ago. I stayed because I love the city. Sometimes it feels small and so there was times like just after uni where I wanted to maybe explore somewhere else but really it's the people that have kept me here. There is such a beautiful community, like everywhere you go I think people are wonderful and welcoming and really want you to get involved. And coming from the art community there's a massive art scene here so that always felt like you were really cared for by people. The space here is just so wonderful. I love this shelving with all of the plants on it. Is there a specific order to everything? So our main wall that is all tropical plants so all humidity loving plants. I want it to not just be a shop, I want people to come in and feel like yeah they're in a little slice of jungle or as close as they can be in this area which is pretty grey. And then over here we have our terrarium plants so more rainforest plants and this section is all desert plants. These ones are pretty fun at the moment, these like really big leaves, they're lovely. I like ferns and these are some holly ferns and they've got some really crazy spores on them at the moment that are really fun. Ferns are my nemesis plant, I feel like I can't keep them alive, I think the humidity levels are so difficult. Yeah they are a little bit tricky. And do you have any plants that are really rare in here that's really hard to find anywhere else? Yeah we have a few, we don't have loads because my main goal is just for people to find gardening easy and not intimidating because it's very different to outdoor gardening. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. How can people come and visit the shop? Thanks for coming. We have a website online if you're not local to Nottingham. If you come down to Stenton Market kind of Thursday, Friday, Saturday a lot of the other makers are also open so it's a really wonderful little day out and we do regular workshops, most of the time plant related. We also do ceramic workshops and drawing workshops with local artists. And you also offer plant advice right, so if I have my Fittonia that's not doing very well. Yeah we are super happy to help with any plant questions, they don't have to be purchased from here. We want people to feel more competent and confident with growing and we don't want lots of plant waste so we are always happy to help. Hi welcome to my shop, my chocolate home where I live basically. This is our second shop, we started in 2018 just around the corner. Our business started off with a very small table and literally a really small audience in the depths of a really cold winter. My mum just passed away and life wasn't looking too good actually. I poured my heart and soul into my business and the more energy I put into my business, the more customers came through the door. I started off yeah as a school teacher, I used to carry chocolate in my bag. I never dreamt of having my own business, it came from like a passion. When I tasted single origin chocolate for the first time I was blown away by all these amazing flavours. Then I got to hear about the stories of the farmers and the communities behind those chocolates and I knew this is what I wanted to do. Every day is a new journey and every day has got trials and tribulations of running a shop but I absolutely love what I'm doing. So yeah welcome to Louisa's, thank you for coming to do this video by the way Sophie and showcasing us, I haven't really said that. No I love meeting small businesses and something else that really drew me to you is that you're the only vegan chocolate shop in the UK, is that right? Yeah I think maybe the only bean to bar, quote me if I'm wrong but yeah. So you were telling me there is a difference between a chocolatier and a chocolate maker? Yes a chocolate maker works from the whole bean all the way through so from often saucing to roasting to winnowing to conching to creating the chocolate and we're in control of the whole process from start to finish. Would you like to see where the magic actually happens where we create the chocolate? Yes let's go and see it. So what are we looking at here? So these beans come majority directly from the farmers, they get shipped to us. These are from the Philippines from a small cooperative of farmers in Mindanao. And when you get the beans in you roast them, how long's the roasting process or does it depend on the bean? Sometimes we do a short roast, sometimes it's a longer roasting profile. We're always experimenting with new roast profiles. Once the beans are roasted they're winnowed so we take the shell away to reveal these wonderful nips and then they basically get broken down and they go in the conch here. So this is bringing out all the recursive flavours we add heat, a little bit of love and it takes about 72 hours to to make the chocolate from scratch and if it's 100% it's just pure there's no sugar or anything added. Once the chocolate is made it comes off and we keep them in these tureens, big ones and small ones and then it goes into a tempering machine. This is our 75% Solomon Islands chocolate that we use as a base for everything. Would you like to try this one liquid? Oh yes please. So is this a milk chocolate or a dark chocolate? So this is a dark 75% Solomon Islands. Enjoy this. That's amazing. It's not what you expect from a dark chocolate? No. So many different notes there, it's fruity, nutty, a bit coffee. Louisa then explained more about the chocolate finishing process and we even got to sample some of their delicious hot chocolate. I'm not really a big dark chocolate eater but I just was blown away by the flavour profile so what is your best selling chocolate? That's a really difficult question and I think that's why we've got so many different bars because I think everybody loves something different. I don't think people realise that, they think dark chocolate oh it's a bit bitter but can you tell me more about the flavours? So everybody's got like a favourite dark. It's really lovely to introduce people to these origins because often they've tried industrial chocolate in the shops and one reason for coming here is because they want the least amount of ingredients in their bars but they don't actually realise like you say how many different flavour profiles. People can't believe that there's no added flavour in the bar and it's not until you try it you realise how different it is. I mean the coffee latte is a complete favourite, the cashew nut milk and single origin coffee from the local coffee roaster. This has got more like honey, lemony notes in the Peruvian and the Solomon Islands lots of red fruit notes. Uganda is kind of like very dark brown fruit notes. I think it's so lovely to enjoy that in our food because we don't seem to to realise how different good craft chocolate is. It's the best gratitude you can have really that people are enjoying your product and it's not just there for you to eat. We've won so many awards for this particular bar but you know we can't like fit it on the on the label basically so we were involved with the University of Nottingham on a project to help free female farmers move away from illicit crops i.e. cocaine into cacao farming. They had a small crop of cacao but they really wanted to improve the fermentation and the end resulting flavour so like we embarked on this amazing project with them testing the cocoa beans from the first fermentation to the third and it drastically improved so the farmers were delighted and that's really improved the price they can gain for their beans. Why Nottingham? Because obviously I imagine there's more chocolate makers in London for example and you've got a wider audience there so why have you chosen Nottingham? So I came here as a student and I kind of went back to London for a year and came back here and I feel like it's my home now so it was always going to be Nottingham. It's just a lovely place to have a small business. Obviously we've got trials and tribulations of like inner city living and all the challenges and yeah people you know living on the streets unfortunately like every big city now but it was a nice place to start in the creative culture at the time and to start from this amazing building that was once a fruit and veg market. It's really nice to breathe life back into these beautiful heritage buildings because when I was a student it was awful you wouldn't come down here it was all derelict and all boarded up but it's changed so much over the years and it's nice to be part of that curve. Once upon a time the whole of the countryside surrounding Nottingham would have been dotted with windmills. Now just one survives this is Green's Windmill. He was born as a son of a baker and he was quite a child prodigy when it came to mathematics. Anyway this remains one of the only working windmills in the UK and when it's actually working they make flour here. Now there's a small science centre here where you can learn more about the history of the windmill. Unfortunately the mill itself is currently undergoing a year-long restoration project in order to lift the roof and then fix some sort of beam issue. The Nottingham and Beeston canal is around 15 miles long and the centre of it actually runs through Nottingham. Here you can wander around without any cars and there's even some people fishing. We then headed into Hopkinson, an art cafe and independent centre filled with second-hand goods and vintage treasures. I even managed to pick up a souvenir for my sister. The most iconic legend from Nottingham has to be Robin Hood, a man who led a group of rebels in nearby Sherwood Forest who would stop rich people, steal from them and then give to the poor ensuring that everyone in his town had food and drink and shelter. To this day Robin Hood is celebrated as a symbol of equality and he is also said to have been the best longboat archer of his day. If you want to get a photo with the iconic statue for yourself then it can be found just outside of Nottingham castle and while we're on the subject of archers it's worth noting that several English kings actually banned watching football in order to encourage more archery practice. Lots of hubs claimed to be the oldest in England and one such of these is Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. It's said to date all the way back to 1189 and is also rumoured to be haunted so let's go in and have a pint. Although this might be the finest establishment this side of the river Trent there's no concrete evidence pointing to the pub actually existing as far back as the 12th century. Nestled in the shadows of the castle which we definitely know dates back to the 11th many of the pub's rooms are actually hewn into the sandstone of the castle rock face leading to a rather unique interior appearance. The bell in dates back to 1437 making it the oldest building used as a pub in Nottingham and actually I just went inside because they have a well which dates back to the 13th century and you can see down into the caves upon which this building is built. I asked one of the staff well I thought Ye Olde Trip to Nottingham was the oldest pub and she said well as far as I understand it Ye Olde Trip to Nottingham is the oldest inn in England while this is the oldest pub in Nottingham. For dinner we headed to Pici, a delightful Italian restaurant serving up all kinds of tasty pasta dishes in a romantic setting. Nottingham isn't particularly famous for its architecture but there are a few really nice places if you know where to look. We're starting off today in the city centre at Watson Fothergill's house he was a Victorian architect and he created this house in order to showcase what he could do. Something that's really surprised me when exploring Nottingham is the number of independent shops and boutiques dotted around the city for example this little passageway is called Cobden Chambers it's just a few minutes walk away from the main town centre square and here you'll find lots of independent shops. The Exchange sits at the very heart of the city it was built between 1927 and 1929 in order to house both council houses and also to serve as a shopping centre. This was actually the city's first shopping centre and when you go inside you can see some very beautiful architecture. It's definitely a welcome respite from the cold during cold days of the year such as today and once in you can see these stunning frescoes on the wall that depict the history of Nottingham starting with the Vikings leading to William the Conqueror and of course you can see Robin Hood. Originally this space was home to just one vendor which was known as Burton's this was an upmarket food cellar similar to Fortnum and Mason's in London. Now there are a number of retail spaces housed within here a lot of furniture stores from what I'm seeing but still very lovely to wander through and admire the architecture. Like much of England Nottingham is surrounded by beautiful countryside and unfortunately we don't have time to see much of it but we have come to the Attenborough Nature Centre in order to see some local birds for sunset. This area is situated on former flooded gravel pits and today you can see lots of birds. Here you'll find a small visitor centre that includes a cafe and a shop there's even a section of the centre which sells binoculars because of how many birds you can spot here. Obviously this isn't the best time of the year to spot them but we can see a few nonetheless. Thank you so much for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe for more UK travel content. See you next week!