As you would expect from a thousand Robin Hood movies, Nottingham Castle is a conspicious structure, situated on a sandstone outcrop above the city. However, the present building was erected, not by a wicked Sherriff in the reign of the wicked King John, but by the Whig politician and Prime Minister, Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle in the eighteenth century; and its interior is even more recent, since the original was torched in 1831 by townspeople rioting against a later Duke's wicked opposition the Reform Bill. The town subsequently acquired the building and opened what is claimed to be the earliest provincial municipal museum.    The exhibits are agreeably short on fossils etc, although there is the obligatory "story of Nottingham" diorama for the benefit of school outings. As regards paintings, there are a couple of galleries devoted to temporary exhibitions, and a 'long gallery' which displays a sample of the Museum's permanent collection, including an eclectic cross-section of the Victorians.    The long gallery has recently been refurbished, and a more spacious hanging policy implemented; which of course means that fewer pictures can be shown at any one time. If they are not showing the paintings you came to see, you may take a despairing plunge (metaphorically -- there are guided tours) into Mortimer's Hole, a quaint subterranean exit from the building.    As well as being highly visible, the Castle is central and close to railway and bus stations, and the shopping centre car parks; it is also well signposted. Website Map

Works at Nottingham by John Brett George Clausen James Collinson Alfred Elmore William Etty James Hayllar John Rogers Herbert Henry Herbert La Thangue Daniel Maclise Laslett John Pott Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Shackleton Charles Hazelwood Shannon Marcus Stone