A wander to the castle

Another muggy, boring day - so I thought I'd use my whole lunch hour again. To the castle!

Up Castle Gate, a great street with a mixture of old and new buildings.

Great Georgian house - the windows even have wooden shutters behind them.

This is Stanford House, and was built around 1775...

...with a fantastic decoration over the door - a skull!

This is the Royal Children pub, as re-built in the 1920s.

Old guides to Nottingham mention that there were 3 amazing-looking buildings next... but there is dual-carriageway now. Philistines.

And so, to Newdigate House, is it as old as the castle (1675) and very handsome indeed.

It wouldn't be one of my wanders without a bit of Watson-Fothergill.

The entrance to the castle.

And we're in. Behind those trees is the castle itself - it is a bit of a bugger to photograph.

The gatehouse - from inside. Entrance is free to Nottingham residents.

The castle grounds are really quite green, with a small wood to the left.

A bandstand.

A view. You can see the lovely incinerator in the distance.

The Trip To Jerusalem nestles against the castle. It claims to have been there for about 800 years... but the building itself is nearer to 300 years old.

Brewhouse Museum.

Severn's House, moved here from Weekday Cross in 1970. It dates from the 1430s.

War memorial.

Tourists at play near the statue of Robin Hood.

And back into the castle grounds.

The exit.

Up Standard Hill...

There are a couple of plaques here:

"On a mound - about 80 yards to the rear of this tablet, Charles I raised his standard. August 25th 1642."

"Lord Byron the poet lived in this house in the years 1798 and 1799"
(I always suspected that he spent one Christmas here).

That is all. I hope you enjoyed it.

A wander to The Ropewalk

So I thought I'd try out my new phone (with its improved camera) on a cloudy day... but I managed to pick a very changeable half hour...

It wouldn't be a #wander without a bit of Watson Fothergill, so here is the entrance to the old newspaper building on Parliament Street.

I'm sure this building is a lot older than it looks - I must try and research is one day.

A great-looking pub.

The Theatre Royal

Market Street - there is an interesting story to go with its name. I will do a full #wander of it soon, and include its history.

And then...the heavens opened. I took shelter - with a lot of other people - to wait out the downpour.

After the rain... the Co-Op building looks beautiful. It deserves a #wander of its own.

This great building is on Derby Road

This is Nottingham Cathedral - and very unremarkable it is too.

This is the Albert Hall, a conference and concert venue. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1906...replacing an earlier Watson Fothergill building.

On, up Derby Road - a string of Victorian shop buildings lead the way.

Hidden from the road, this elegant building looks like an old school, or convent. Any ideas?

And this little building doesn't fit at all - it looks another 50 years older than the buildings squashing it from either side.

And so, to Canning Circus, with the beautiful alms houses that are also the entrance to the cemetery.

On to The Ropewalk. They used to make rope here, but now it is mostly offices... many of them from the Regency period...

...and many of them are Victorian Gothic, painted to look Regency.

An unashamedly gothic building.

And an old garage, now a shell. The lighting was really kind to me as I took this one.

Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror. Beautiful.

That is all. Thankyou.