Nottingham: City of Creativity, Talent and Enterprise

Nottingham is well-known for its ground-breaking research: from the discovery of Ibuprofenand the MRI scanner, to advanced textiles and carbon capture, Nottingham is known as the home of innovation. It is home to two world-class universities – the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.  

Since Jesse Boot formed his pharmaceutical company in Nottingham over one hundred years ago, the city has become known as an international centre of excellence for life science and medical science.

One of Europe’s largest bioscience business incubators, Medicity, is based on the site where Ibuprofen was discovered.

Nottingham's £25m Centre for Biomolecular Sciences brings together the expertise of over 300 world-leading scientists in drug discovery, cancer research, stem-cell science, bacteriology and regenerative medicine.  Other key industry sectors include biotechnology, gaming, film and design.

Nottingham has a heritage of high-growth knowledge industries: it has been involved in life sciences since the 1950s, big data since the 1970s and is now a national centre for fintech, healthcare technology, and advanced manufacturing research.  It is home to a number of household names including Speedo, Raleigh, Games Workshop, Capital One, Experian and world-renowned fashion designer Paul Smith. The city has a rapidly growing enviro-tech sector and launched its Creative Quarter in 2013 to help creative industries establish and grow in the city.

The city and wider county is well known as a destination for culture, shopping, sport and the arts and in 2015, the city was proud to be recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature. Its legends and stories have inspired storytellers for centuries, including rebellious writers such as DH Lawrence, who was born and raised in Eastwood Nottinghamshire; Alan Sillitoe, Nottingham’s most famous contemporary writer; and Lord Byron, whose ancestral home was the beautiful and historic Newstead Abbey and his remains now rest in the St Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall. 

The city is buzzing with events and attractions all year round at its inspirational arts, entertainment and heritage venues, including the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham Contemporary, Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham Playhouse, the Galleries of Justice Museum and the New Art Exchange to name but a few. 

The world’s first cultural centre for gaming, the National Videogame Arcade opened in Nottingham in 2015, bringing hands-on experiences of videogames and videogame culture under one roof in a way that’s never been seen before.

Some of the country’s top sportsmen and women are from Nottingham, including the legendary Torvill and Dean, Rebecca Adlington and Para-Olympian Richard Whitehouse. 

• Nottingham became England’s official Home of Sport, also in 2015, and is home to world famous sporting facilities such as Trent Bridge cricket ground, the National Ice Centre and the National Water Sports Centre. The National Ice Centre is home to Great Britain’s speed skating team, as well as the GMB Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey team. 
• The oldest football league club in the world - Notts County Football Club - was formed in Nottingham in 1862. Its stadium and that of Nottingham’s second professional football club, Nottingham Forest Football Club, are closer than any others in England at just 418 metres apart. 

• The UK's first ever National Civil War Centre opened in Newark in 2015. The centrepiece theme of this £5.4m centre is the deadly struggles for power in 17th century Britain during the British Civil War. The struggle to control Newark, a staunchly Royalist town, was one of the defining events of the Civil War. It was near here that King Charles I surrendered to the Scots Army which was allied to the Roundheads. Also in Newark, the Newark International Antique & Collectors Fair, held six times a year, is the largest in Europe.
• Southwell, where the first Bramley apple was cultivated over 200 years ago, is also home to the 12th century Southwell Minster, a superb Cathedral and Minster Church which features spectacular medieval carvings and a Norman Nave which is one of the finest in Europe. 
• North Nottinghamshire is the setting for grand Ducal estates and rural countryside, including the historic limestone gorge and caves of Cresswell Crags, which is home to some of the most important  Ice Age finds in Britain, including the country’s only known Ice Age Rock Art.

• Nottinghamshire’s Sherwood Forest is an awe inspiring nature reserve of ancient oak trees - including the world famous Major Oak which was once the hideout of the legendary Robin Hood and his band of merry men.  

• Each August, Sherwood Forest hosts the Robin Hood Festival with jousting tournaments, story tellers, comedy acts.

• Plans are underway for a proposed new Sherwood Forest visitor centre to be built and managed by a consortium led by the RSPB from early 2018. 

• On 22 August 1642, Charles I effectively marked the beginning of the Civil War in Nottingham. The king raised his royal standard as a signal for his supporters to rally to his side on Derry Mount (later named Standard Hill) just outside Nottingham Castle, where a plaque now commemorates this historic event.  

• During the Civil War, royalist stronghold Newark Castle came under siege by the parliamentarians no less than three times. Finally in 1646, after conditions in the castle became unbearable, the king travelled in disguise to nearby minster town Southwell, where he surrendered himself to the Scots Army.  

• At over 1000 years old, Parliament Oak is thought to be the oldest tree in Sherwood Forest and is found at the edge of Clipstone Forest, between Edwinstowe and Mansfield.  King John is said to have taken counsel with his advisers under the ancient oak in the 13th Century which is the most likely explanation for how the tree earned its name. 

• Nottingham's council house has one of the best set of clock bells in the country. So good in fact, that the hour bell Little John could be used a substitute while Big Ben undergoes significant repair work.   

• Nottingham's bell is the 5th heaviest in the UK, with the deepest E-flat tone that can be heard up to seven miles away, making it the ideal candidate for the job of chiming the hour from Westminster.  

• The latest 2015 report shows the value of tourism in Nottinghamshire is worth £1.68 billion to the local economy and generates 21,781 jobs.  The number of visitors in 2015 reached over 34.2 million.