To Nottingham, with love — 5 letters to the city
From actors, authors, advocates, and more...
Our city has lots to love about it – but it isn’t always celebrated near and far. However, these Nottingham love letters show how brilliant it is to be here.
We asked five renowned people from the city to write about why they cherish it, drawing on their own lived experiences and the unique things they’ve brought to and taken from it.
Whether you’re looking for things to do in Nottingham or simply enjoy hearing about the area, these letters are interesting and moving. For more guides and features, subscribe to The Notts Edit to receive our articles in your inbox for free.
To Nottingham, with love
Bella Ramsey, BAFTA-winning actor known for roles in The Last of Us and Game of Thrones
Nottingham is the place where I was born, and the place where my acting career was too. The Television Workshop was, is, and will always be the highlight of the Nottingham I know. Nottingham, to me, is still the big red door and the basement beneath it at The Television Workshop’s original location on Stoney Street.
It is the brie and cranberry sandwiches at The Hungry Pumpkin with my mum before the Saturday afternoon group. It is having a wee in the Galleries of Justice Museum if there was no time for a sandwich, because who could ever be sure if the toilets were working down in that basement. It is running under the water fountains on Old Market Square afterwards, getting drenched, fully clothed, on a sunny day. It is the unexpected drenching I got with my Grandma one time as we battled uphill through a sudden Midlands storm, from the train station to that big red door.
Aside from that door and its basement, Nottingham is the place I’d visit my sister, watch her graduate and find her wedding dress. It’s the place I’d visit my primary school friend when he’d find himself in QMC. It’s the place I took the train to on my own for the first time. It’s the perfect clash of old and new architecture as you approach the city from the south on London Road Roundabout. It’s ice-skating followed by Zaap Thai, it’s the White Rose charity shops, and it’s 200 Degrees coffee shops.
That’s the Nottingham I know. But it is a city that feels awake and alive, whether you have memories there or not. It is a city I am proud to have come from, in unequivocally more ways than one.
Mhairi McFarlane, author of rom-coms such as Who’s That Girl? and Cover Story
The thing about Nottingham is that it’s interesting but unpretentious. There isn’t a huge amount of arrogant civic pride in the city, but there are always exciting things happening. Such as the way Sneinton Market has turned into such a great place for independent, creative businesses, flanked by two of our best pubs – the King Billy and the Bath Inn.
I’m from Lady Bay originally, which has to be one of the nicest suburbs to live in the whole country. My neighbourhood now, Sherwood, is full of good places to eat and shop – Brigitte Bordeaux wine shop and bar has become a local treasure – there’s Woodthorpe Park up the road: a lifeline during lockdown. Then it’s a short stroll to The Gladstone in Carrington, a pub so vibey I put it in one of my books.
Nottingham Contemporary, Bromley House Library and Wollaton Hall and its grounds can all transport you out of the ordinary day to day. Nottingham is walkable, friendly – and you can get a great sour cherry Negroni at Raymond’s in Hockley.
Marcus Lewsley, founder of restaurant Raymond’s
Growing up in Long Eaton, there was always the divide – you were either a Derby County fan, or a Nottingham Forest fan or a Notts County fan. But Nottingham always had a place in my heart, and it was always my favourite city out of the two. I left Long Eaton when I was 16, travelled the UK with work, but I always knew that coming back to Nottingham was where I wanted to be and stay. I didn’t know that it would be doing restaurants and creating restaurants, but I always knew I wanted to be part of everything that’s going on in Nottingham.
I have been so happy to be here for the last five years and be able to add to the colourful and diverse community we have. Whether I’m walking down Diagon Alley (or as some people know it, The Angel) bumping into random people, making new friends, stumbling into the Lace Market Fish Bar to say hello to Sammy, get some food, and then head home, there’s new people to meet, there’s new things going on, and there’s always something happening.
We’re a city full of independence, and I feel that’s where we thrive, and that’s what I love about it so much. Chains seem to disappear, but solid independents seem to stay put, and I long for that for the city – I hope this continues. There’s so many great restaurants, so many great shops. Music in the city is also incredible, whether it’s Swing Dash, The Model, or even throwing back to The Market Bar, Bar 11 and Stealth in my younger days, we really are thriving.
I do love this city, and I hope this city continues to grow and every year I live here. I hope that I can always be a part of it.
raymondsnottingham.co.uk
@marcuslewsley
CJ DeBarra, journalist and author of Queer Nottingham 1960-1990 and Queer Nottingham 1991-2020, and founder of Notts Queer History Archive
I was never meant to stay here, as I told my mum I’d be back in a year... that was 12 years ago. I moved from Cork, the rebel city of Ireland, to England’s rebel city – Nottingham in search of the dream: an actual gay scene. Only joking, I came here to study politics.
When I arrived here, I had no idea I was following the Irish tradition of landing at St. Ann’s to live. Although since then I’ve added stints in Beeston, Canning Circus, Sherwood and, my favourite, Sneinton. Nottingham is the city I found myself in – I came out here, met my wife, made a career and bought a home in. It offered me opportunities I could only have dreamt of had I stayed in West Cork. Even when I ran away to Italy for a year, and despite marrying a Welsh woman, I’m still here.
The vibrancy of the city is what keeps me here, although my middle-aged body wishes it were a little less so at times. That said, my favourite spaces are Five Leaves Bookshop and Central Library, so it’s not all about the late nights. As I’ve adopted the city, and it me, I’ve become fiercely protective of it, especially as someone who runs an archive of its queer history.
I live in between three cities now: Cork, Cardiff and Nottingham, with no idea where the future will take me. I think it’s fair to say that I’ll never be far from the Midlands, though – either in spirit, soul or Sneinton.
fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk
@nottsqueerhistoryarchive
Adam Penford, artistic director at Nottingham Playhouse
Born and bred in Notts, it’s a privilege to now be the artistic director at Nottingham Playhouse, the theatre I went to growing up. When I think about what I love about the city, it’s often the memories as a youngster that come to mind.
As a Nottingham child of the 80s: Throwing pennies into the water-powered clock outside Boots in the Vicci Centre, putting your foot on that cold measuring thing at Clarks shoe shop; giggling at the stuffed gorilla’s impressive private parts on school trips to Wollaton Hall; going down the flume that looped outside the swimming baths, scraping your back on the plastic; watching the noon shoot-out at the American Adventure; ice skating to Bryan Adams’ Everything I Do (I Do It For You); and of course, watching the legendary Nottingham Playhouse panto.
As a Nottingham teenager of the 90s: Meeting at the Left Lion, (no mobile phones back then); running for buses (no tram back then); watching England crash out of Euro ‘96 in the Arboretum pub; nearly taking out a tooth on a toffee apple at Goose Fair; smelling joss sticks in Ice Nine; giving money to the legendary Xylophone Man; sticky dance floors at Rock City; Wild Clothing, RIP; and seeing the Slab Square fountains foam when the students poured washing powder in.
Nottingham isn’t a perfect city. It has its fair share of challenges, deprivation, and conflict. But its people have a sense of identity, a certain spirit, a mad accent, and that makes it home – no matter what decade you grew up in.
nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
@adampenford
Photos: Bea Phi CC By SA 4.0, supplied, James Phipps, supplied, Marc Brenner
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