This was such a strange version of the modern urge to recreate the material past that people in power have destroyed and that now fascinates us, but in a sanitised and safe way. Having destroyed this neighbourhood of history and character and community developed over a whole lot of hard years (from whence also came most of the desperate poor came who were sent of to America, Australia), they rebuilt a cardboard and mirror version for our enjoyment. Perhaps as an attempt to lighten the horror of all we were seeing, was they had recreated Drury Hill. These were the only caves I would love to see blown into tiny pieces, along with this prison. If I were not heartbroken enough, here the caves were things of horror, holding felons (remembering that god these were some unjust laws in a system of complete injustice) and people imprisoned for debt. There’s a statue of a woman being burned to death complete with fake fire, a celebration of changing prison guard uniforms alongside a most heartbreaking procession of punishments for crimes of hunger and poverty, and reminders of just how many were transported to other countries both to cement the power of Empire and to rid England of the troublesome poor the wealthy had no use for, especially the ones that did not just die quietly of cold and starvation. They just weren’t sure whether this needed to be an indictment of past (and present) barbarities and solidarity with its victims (my strong feeling), or a house of horrors, or a curiosity box of punishments with some celebration of law thrown in.
They did try to make horrific injustices and horrible punishments a little less horrible, but the gibbet is there hanging. I wanted more, so I decided we would brave the prison on our save-money-by-visiting-both-attractions tickets - a terrible mistake. They were used as cellars and storage rooms and hiding places and escape routes and gambling and drinking dens:ĭuring WWII people escaped the bombs in them. The very poor lived in them - at much risk to health and life expectancy: The caves were still eerie and wonderful, despite our being part of a large group of people tramping through in hard-hats
The tannery carved out of the rocks several hundred years ago once looked out onto running water - human beings have transformed this section of the landscape with immense thoroughness, and with a rather jaw-dropping destructiveness once you realize what has been lost.
I thought, actually, the characters in costume were pretty good for what they were asked to do - I finally understand how tanning works! I personally prefer straight exposition, but I didn’t mind the acting. The best tour (that we had time to find and embark on) of the caves has to be accessed through the shopping centre itself, with more care gone into warning you of stick figures in peril than the wonders beneath that might distract you from Top Shop: They also plunked down Broadmarsh Shopping Centre on top of them. Planners tore down all the old narrow streets with their twisting and interconnecting cellars, and built scenic car parking, with ‘local colour’ added through its naming in a most disheartening way (poor Maid Marian): This church survived, but with the indignity of corporate identity and its reinvented nature as a Pitcher&Piano chain pub plastered all over it. The 450+ caves underneath the city do not appear to be things that city bureaucrats and planners cared about at all until recently unless it was to seal them up and stamp them out - sometimes I wonder how it’s possible that people with such power view awesomeness as a liability. I hate them too, but for me being underground offset that - though for the record, I thought we’d be able to do them without a tour leader in costume and was proved dreadfully wrong. It involved much suffering, especially by my partner Mark who can’t abide tours led by ‘characters’. We attempted a derive of underground Nottingham.
I didn’t know it was a city of caves, built over sandstone that human beings have been tunneling out for centuries. Nottingham was our last stop on those glorious summer days in the Peak District, and a fascinating one.
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