Nottinghasm.co.uk - City of Caves

City Of Caves

Nottingham is built upon a soft rock that - unlike many other types of rock - can easily be worked by individuals armed with a pick and a decent pair of biceps each. In olden times, the settlement was named 'tigguo cobauc', which meant, 'the place of caves'.

From Nottingham's very early days, the inhabitants have sought to create, expand and modify living and commercial premises through underground excavation. The road tunnel pictured above is hewn through rock between Derby Road and the Park. As well as the more obvious carvings around the base of castle rock and up on Hollowstone, there are still a large - but sadly decreasing - number of individual manmade caves and tunnels beneath the city centre. Back in the day these were created as living spaces, workshops, thoroughfares and beer cellars (handily, Nottingham's caves remain at a temperature entirely suited to storing beer).

The City of Caves attraction (accessed through Broadmarsh Centre) takes you on a subterranean tour into the caves that used to sit beneath drury Hill and the surrounding slum, whilst the Nottingham Caves Survey is currently mapping all of the existing caves beneath the city and constructing animated 3D models of them, indicating their position alongside familiar buildings which you can access online. Click on the links below to find-out more.