Things to Do in Nottingham
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If you've landed on a bathroom fitter's website while searching for things to do in Nottingham, you're probably new to the city, hosting someone who is, or grabbing five minutes away from paint fumes and grout lines to plan a day out. Either way, this guide comes from a team that's spent the best part of twenty years working inside houses across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire - from Victorian terraces near the Lace Market to newer builds out past Wollaton - so the city has become familiar to us on the job, not just on a map. We're Nottingham Bathroom Fitter, a family-run bathroom fitting business, and while the trade is showers and tiling rather than tourism, being in and out of local homes every week gives a fair feel for what's actually worth a visit.Below is a straight rundown of the Castle, the caves underneath it, the Lace Market, Wollaton Hall, and Sherwood Forest, plus a few streets and pubs that don't always make the shortlist but should. The attraction details are cross-checked against Visit Nottinghamshire's own guide and current Tripadvisor listings rather than guessed, and where we've added local colour, it's from actually being on the streets we're describing.
What This Nottingham Guide Covers (and Where It Stops)
- Nottingham Castle and its grounds, including the National Justice Museum close by
- City of Caves and the sandstone tunnel network running underneath the city centre
- Wollaton Hall and its deer park
- The Lace Market's Victorian warehouse streets, including Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
- Sherwood Forest Country Park as a half-day trip out of the city
- Old Market Square, the Council House, and the main shopping streets around the Victoria Centre
- Getting between these areas by tram, bus, and on foot
Not Included / Costed Separately
- Gig listings, festival dates and one-off events - programmes change month to month, so check the venue directly before you travel
- Restaurant and hotel bookings - this points you toward an area, it doesn't make a reservation for you
- Full day trips further afield, such as Derby or the Peak District, which need their own guide rather than a paragraph tacked on here
- Exact ticket prices, kept general on purpose because venues revise them through the year
Planning a Day, or a Weekend, Around Nottingham
- Pick an area, not just a landmark: Old Market Square and the Lace Market sit close enough together to combine into one walk, while Wollaton Hall and Sherwood Forest are each better treated as a dedicated half-day rather than squeezed in alongside the city centre.
- Book ahead for the popular sites: Nottingham Castle and City of Caves both run timed entry when they're busy, and turning up on a Saturday afternoon without a ticket can mean a wait, or a sold-out slot altogether.
- Sort transport before the day itself: The tram covers the city centre well, but Wollaton Hall and Sherwood Forest are easier reached by car or bus, and parking near the Castle fills early whenever there's an event on.
- Build in a proper stop for food: The Lace Market and Hockley pack more independent cafes and bars into a small area than the main shopping streets do, so it's worth treating that stretch as a destination in its own right rather than just a route between two sights.
- Keep a wet-weather option in your back pocket: The Castle and the caves are both mostly indoor or covered, so they're the ones to swap in if the forecast turns, saving Wollaton Park or Sherwood Forest for a drier day.
What a Day Out in Nottingham Actually Costs
Prices at Nottingham's paid attractions move through the year, so treat any figure you see quoted online as a starting point rather than the final word - check the attraction's own website close to your visit date rather than relying on a listings site. Wollaton Park itself is free to walk around, with a charge only if you want to go inside the hall or the industrial museum. Sherwood Forest Country Park is free to enter, so parking is the main cost if you're driving out. Nottingham Castle and City of Caves both charge admission and often sell a joint ticket, which works out cheaper than paying for each separately if you're doing both in the same day. If you happen to be weighing up a day of sightseeing against getting a bathroom priced up while you're in the city, the same
rule applies to both: a figure you've read online is a guide, not a quote, and any bathroom job worth having still needs a proper look at the actual room, plumbing and layout before a fixed price gets put on it.
How Nottingham's Main Attractions Stack Up
| Attraction | Best for | Time to set aside | Indoor or outdoor | Good wet-weather option? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham Castle | History, city views, the Robin Hood story | 2-3 hours | Mostly indoor/covered | Yes |
| City of Caves | The sandstone tunnels under the city centre | 45-60 minutes | Indoor | Yes |
| Wollaton Hall & Deer Park | A slower day, deer, gardens | Half a day | Outdoor, with an indoor hall | Better on a dry day |
| The Lace Market | Victorian architecture, independent bars and food | 1-2 hours wandering | Outdoor | Partly - plenty of places to duck into |
| Sherwood Forest Country Park | Ancient woodland, the Major Oak, walking | Half a day | Outdoor | No |
Why Take Directions From a Bathroom Fitter
We're not a tourist board, and we're not pretending to be travel writers. What this business does have is twenty years of turning up at real addresses across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire - Victorian terraces near the Lace Market where the original chimney breast is still boxing in a soil pipe, 1930s semis out toward Wollaton, newer estates further into the suburbs - and that builds a different sort of familiarity with the city than any guidebook offers. Nottingham Bathroom Fitter is family-run, registered at 4 Ferrers Walk in Nottingham, and the tradespeople who go out to jobs are in-house rather than subcontracted for the day, several having been with the business since it started. Plumbing is carried out to NVQ Level 2 and City & Guilds standard, joinery by City & Guilds trained tradespeople, electrical work by Part P approved installers, gas work
by Gas Safe registered engineers, and plastering by someone with forty years in the trade. Waste and rubbish clearance goes through a licensed carrier. Every job gets a written contract before work starts, a formal sign-off at the end, a 5-Year Labour and Installation Guarantee, and a 2-Year Guarantee on the products fitted. None of that tells you where to get a decent coffee near the Lace Market, but it's the reason people trust the same team with a job most guidebook writers never see: what's behind the tiles once the visitors have gone home.
Where We're Based and Where We Work
Nottingham is home ground - most weeks put the team somewhere between the Lace Market, The Park estate, and the streets running out toward Wollaton, where Victorian and Edwardian houses often have original lead or iron pipework hiding behind later plasterwork, which changes how a bathroom refit gets planned compared with a 1990s estate house. Beyond the city itself, work covers Nottinghamshire more widely, into Derby and Derbyshire, and out as far as Doncaster, so whether you're reading this from a period terrace near the centre or a newer build on Nottingham's edges, it's the same local team either way.
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the top tourist attractions in Nottingham?
Nottingham Castle, City of Caves, Wollaton Hall, the Lace Market, and the National Justice Museum come up on most attraction listings, including Visit Nottinghamshire's own guide, and each covers different ground - history and views from the Castle, an underground tunnel network at the Caves, gardens and deer at Wollaton, Victorian architecture in the Lace Market, and criminal justice history at the Justice Museum. Sherwood Forest Country Park sits a little further out but is usually grouped in with the city's main draws because of the Robin Hood connection.
Is Nottingham Castle worth visiting?
Yes, and for most people it's the one to prioritise if you're only doing a single attraction - the site has views over the city, ties into the Robin Hood story, and sits close enough to the centre to pair with a walk round Old Market Square afterward. It's not a medieval castle in the fairy-tale sense any more, since much of what stands today dates from later rebuilding, but the grounds and the history behind them still earn the visit.
Where can you learn about the Robin Hood legend in Nottingham?
Nottingham Castle is the obvious starting point, and Sherwood Forest Country Park, home to the Major Oak, is the place most tied to the legend itself if you've got half a day to head out of the city. Between the two you get both the civic and the woodland side of the story.
Is Sherwood Forest near Nottingham worth visiting?
Yes, if you've got the time to make a proper trip of it rather than a quick stop - it isn't walking distance from the city centre, so it works best as its own half-day out rather than an add-on to a castle-and-caves day. The ancient oak woodland and the Major Oak are the main draw, and the pace is genuinely different from the city centre.
What is the Lace Market known for?
It's Nottingham's old lace industry quarter, and the name refers to the Victorian warehouses built when the city was a centre of lace manufacturing - a lot of that architecture survives today as bars, restaurants and offices rather than working warehouses, and it's where most of the city's independent food and drink options cluster rather than the bigger chain-heavy streets nearer Old Market Square. Some street names and layouts trace back further still, with evidence of activity in the area from Saxon times, long before the Victorian buildings that give it its current look.
What is the oldest pub in Nottingham?
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, built into the sandstone rock the Castle sits on, is widely cited as England's oldest inn, and it's one of the more unusual pub visits you'll get anywhere in the country because part of the building is carved directly into the rock face rather than built up from it.
How extensive is the network of caves beneath Nottingham?
More extensive than most first-time visitors expect - the city sits above a network of over 800 man-made caves cut into the sandstone, used at different points for tanning, storage, air-raid shelters and more. Only a portion is open to the public through the City of Caves attraction, but it gives a real sense of how much sits underneath the streets you'd otherwise just walk over without a second thought.
What are the best family-friendly activities in Nottingham?
Wollaton Hall's deer park is an easy win for a free afternoon with kids, since you can walk among the deer without booking anything, and the hall itself runs family activities inside on top of that. City of Caves and Nottingham Castle both work well for slightly older children who'll get more from the history and the tunnels, and Sherwood Forest Country Park gives younger kids space to run around properly rather than sticking to paths.
Does Nottingham's older housing affect how a bathroom gets fitted, and where's renovation demand highest right now?
It can, and it's one of the more genuine differences between working on a Victorian or Edwardian terrace near the Lace Market or The Park estate and a newer build further out - original lead or cast iron pipework hiding behind later plaster, timber floors that need checking before anything heavy goes in, and layouts built around a chimney breast rather than a modern stud wall all change how a refit gets planned, not just how it looks once finished. Renovation demand tends to run high in both directions for different reasons: period properties where owners are finally replacing a bathroom that's never matched the rest of the house, and newer development pockets on the city's edges where first owners want to swap out a standard-spec suite fairly early on. Either way, it's part of why people who move to Nottingham for the city itself often end up calling a local fitter within a year or two of settling in.
Enjoy Nottingham, Then Get Your Bathroom Sorted Properly
Whether you're new to the city and still working out which end of the Lace Market you like best, or you've lived here for years and finally got round to fixing the bathroom in a house you bought for its period features, the job doesn't need to wait for a quiet week. A tired bathroom doesn't improve with time, and the sooner it's looked at, the sooner it stops being the room you apologise for when people stay over. Get in touch to arrange a site visit and a proper look at what your bathroom actually needs, backed by a written contract before anything starts and a guarantee that stands behind the work once it's done.
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