The Park Tunnel

The history of Nottingham has always fascinated me. Growing up in Notts, I’ve always found pictures of how the city used to look like of great interest. Even comparing pictures from the eighties and today, the old Victoria Centre food court and bus station for example, has always been interesting for me. I guess it’s because the city has changed a lot over the years.

One way or another, I found this website of a guy called Ray Teece who has taken many pictures of the city in the last two years. An interesting way to document how our city looks now, but of more interest are the pictures he took of one of Nottingham’s hidden gems. The Park Tunnel.

The Park area of Nottingham is unique, it’s a residential area right smack bang in the centre of Nottingham that seems stuck in the 1800’s. Buildings remain from that time, the streetlights are gas lit and access to vehicles is prohibited at night and on certain days.

Built largely by the Duke of Newcastle, this guy also had the idea of building a tunnel from the estate which would lead up to Derby Road. Built for horse-drawn traffic, apparently the gradient of the tunnel proved too steep for actual use so never became the thoroughfare as intended.

The entrance on Tunnel Road in the Park is obvious for all to see, upon first finding it when walking in the Park a few years ago it was certainly intriguing for me. In between the houses that have been built around the tunnel as the years have gone by, the entrance was still there. Unfortunately, me being me, I was put off walking through a tunnel which I was unsure of where it came out. Plus it was quite dark!

I’d always wanted to know where exactly it did come out. Apparently it was somewhere on Derby Road, but I could never find where. I get the number 18 bus up Derby Road almost every day, and have done for years, and I could never seek it out. There is the Cathedral, a charity shop, a school and Budgens. No visible entrance!

Well, thanks to Ray’s website, I’ve managed to locate it. He has took a few pictures of the Park end of the tunnel, and one of the Derby Road entrance. Apparently it’s in the courtyard of a new development built on the site of the tunnel. Right next to Budgens is the entrance to a car park, through which you can enter a staircase which leads to the tunnel.

The picture below clearly shows the wall to the left was the start of the entrance, but the new development built over the entrance has meant that now just an unsigned staircase leads to this tunnel and a genuine historical Nottingham curiosity.

It’s a real shame that there are no pictures of how this part of Derby Road looked before it was built on, and indeed that I never saw how it used to look. But it’s nice to know that the tunnel can still be used. Though I’m still put off by all the scary darkness!!

(All pictures above are copyright to Mr Ray Teece and are from his Nottingham21 website)