Last Friday, our series of TwiTrips rolled into Nottingham. As with all of our previous Twitter-fuelled adventures, I didn't have anything planned. I would turn up at the station, succumb to the temptation of a cheesy, two-thumbed 'I've arrived!' photo, before handing it over to the good people of Twitter to guide my every step for the rest of the day.
The Twitter tips
As has become customary on our TwiTrips around the UK, the day began with a request for fascinating Nottingham trivia. Just beyond the 'burbs of London, CafeBarContemp informed me that "The Clash played a gig at Nottingham station as part of their Back to Basics busking tour in the mid-80s." Nice. MrDavidWhitley piped in just south of Market Harborough, dropping something of a bombshell: "Maid Marian doesn't exist in the original Robin Hood ballads. She was, it seems, invented by 16th-century Morris dancers." I was devastated.
But I soldiered on, and just short of 1pm I arrived, and swiftly paid my dues to the King of Nottingham. Having requested some impressive roof action, inspired by the heights of St Pancras, my next stop was the The Exchange shopping centre, where I perved upon the glorious 200ft-high neo-Baroque dome thanks to the recommendation of peter_s_clarke and davidbaird85.
It was time for some food. Pamreader and Jtownend had fingered the The Walk Cafe as a Nottingham must - and the cafe itself had been showering me with tweets and even designed a competition in honour of the TwiTrip – so I duly paid a visit. Inside, as well-healed locals sipped on Earl Grey poured from china teapots, I gorged on slabs of rye bread layered with pastrami. A very good start indeed.
But I couldn't stay long. Muldoon tweeted me with some startling breaking news: "Broadway Cinema is currently showing a 10-hour video of a man digging a hole. Really." I raced over, to find said man halfway into his challenge, having already reached waist-height on a projection beamed on to the wall of the cinema's cafe. But admirable hole-digging isn't Broadway's only claim to fame – it is also a favourite of Quentin Tarantino, who chose the venue for the UK premiere of Reservoir Dogs, and has a screening room designed by Nottingham designer Paul Smith.
Hellothor and trickyfred had informed me that this corner of Nottingham was something of a novelty cinema hotspot, and I popped across the road to visit Screen Room, officially the smallest commercial cinema in the world - with a mere 22 seats - and the Guinness plaque to prove it. Handily, another Twitter favourite, Lee Rosy's tea shop was next door, where I had a somethingorotherccino, and slotted on to a table alongside various Mac-toting creative types.
My next Twitter-gleened tip was the impressive Nottingham Contemporary, complete with its strangely beautiful exterior of corrugated green and gold concrete. It's the kind of building that really shouldn't be attractive, but definitely is. And the exhibition, Star City, engulfed me. The theme, I think, was the Soviet side of the Space Race, and the ideas that came with it. I gaped at intricate installations, lost half an hour in a screening room showing underwater spaceship testing, and was dumbfounded by a cosmonaut who looked dangerously like Andrei Arsharvin, the Arsenal player.
And then – you won't believe it! – I fell into a small rip in the space-time continuum. Honest. OK, my phone died and refused to turn on, and I spent an hour flailing around Nottingham like a drunken sea captain. Tsk.
I surfaced in front of Anish Kapoor's ingenious Sky Mirror, a sculpture outside the Nottingham Playhouse that flips the sky upside down, as recommended by Bexmo and pcmcreative. Ellen_Carroll sent over an intriguing story printed in this very publication: The Sky Mirror was once feared as an indiscriminate pigeon killer due to its light-focussing powers. Chilling.
Next up, pamreader and robcutforth had both challenged me to find the Bromley House library, where the lovely custodians allowed me beyond an innocuous door on Angel Row and into a beautiful Georgian Townhouse replete with elaborate cornicing, soaring oak bookcases and a spiral staircase. I was the only person in there.
From the serene to the utterly chaotic. Brotherlogic urged me to visit Rob's Records (no website, unsurprisingly, but you'll find it at 4 Hurt's Yard, behind Long Row), allegedly "the most chaotic record shop in the country!" Tucked down a dilapidated yard and heralded by a handwritten sign scrawled on a flap of cardboard, the scene inside resembled a mad uncle's garage, rammed to the ceiling with ripped boxes full of old records alongside broken TVs, plastic bags and peeling paintwork. Any categorisation system was clearly abandoned many aeons ago. Rob was gamely flicking through some of his stock, as a couple of customers trawled through the debris for vinyl gems.
As the clock approached 6pm, it was time for a mini pre-dinner pub crawl. Nottingham pub tips had been streaming in throughout the day. First up was the marvellous galleried surrounds of the Malt Cross, as recommended by redbrickers, hatchnottingham and Leightonjm. Then... an institution: Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem - allegedly Britain's oldest pub, with a cavernous interior dug into the rock around Nottingham Castle. Thanks to RobertLento, Neeeeeeel, vocal_minority, NottinghamTinfo, and MrDavidWhitley for that one.
Dinner time. Of all the tips I received, ErikPetersen's intrigued me the most – an Afghan meal in Radford, one of Nottingham's most immigrant-infused districts. In Falah, an ordinary looking takeaway with a handful of seats, I was urged to try the 'Mantu' by Erik, and the Chaple kebab by my cab driver. I ordered both, and chowed furiously. The Mantu was sublime; steamed dumplings filled with chopped beef, onions and herbs topped with yogurt and Afghan chutney. What a find.
And then, the nicest surprise of the day. In through the door came ErikPetersen himself, accompanied by his wife, to join me for a pudding of hot halwa with almond sugar, cardomon and carrot. Turns out they live a few doors down, and have grown increasingly addicted to Falah's food - Erik is hoping to develop a complex system of levers and pulley to ferry food directly from their kitchen to his lounge.
Finally, it was time to shake off my Mantu to a little rock n roll. As one does. Over at The Maze, a century-old pub that used to host bare knuckle fights in its back room, Cambridge-based Jack Rabbit Slim were providing the entertainment – thanks to bexmo, pamreader and trickyfred for the tip. And thanks to these two gentlemen for the finest hair I have come across in some time. Top coiffing.
The lights went down, Jack Rabbit Slim let rip, and the bunny hops began. From a pub in a cave, to an Afghan slap-up, to a rockabilly nightclub, the merry tweeters of Nottingham had done themselves proud. And so ended another superb TwiTrip. Thanks for all your help.
Getting there
Benji stayed at the Lace Market Hotel (+44 (0)115 852 3232, doubles from £79 B&B), as recommended by KemistryGallery. East Midlands Trains run regular services from in between London and Nottingham from £13 one way.
