Be a nice buy for some oligarchy type:
Nottingham Castle has closed its doors to the public after the trust that runs it fell into liquidation, a year after a £33m revamp of the site failed to bring in expected visitor numbers.
In a statement published on Monday morning, Nottingham Castle Trust said it was “saddened and hugely disappointed” to be closing. It added that visitors were “significantly below” the 300,000 a year projected after a three-year renovation.
Pity it’s in Nottingham of course. There’s also another problem:
Once an important royal fortress, most of the original medieval Nottingham castle was destroyed in 1651 and the site is now largely taken up by a Victorian rebuild of the 17th-century mansion, which was built on the site.
It’s not really a real, castley, castle, so there’re none of those necessary walls to keep the Nottinghamites out.
Shame about Omar Sharif, because he could have been the Sharif of Nottingham!
My guess is that there might be many contenders for that title already without troubling the shades of a bridge-playing thesp.
“The trust previously said the revamp, funded by sources including Nottingham city council and the Heritage Lottery Fund, would turn the site into a “world-class heritage destination” to rival the castles at Warwick and York.”
Part of the reason that Warwick Castle got so big is that they handed it over to Tussauds. It was always good when I was a kid, but it now has jousting, falconry shows and a trebuchet.
And apart from the whole thing of Nottingham being a dump, it’s also about agglomeration, proximity to other places. Why is Monet’s garden at Giverny very popular? In part because it’s an hour from Paris. So, not too far as an excursion for people visiting Paris. You can’t just sink £30m into one place. Who is going to come for a weekend? (and if people aren’t coming for the weekend, your town/city doesn’t get any economic gains).
So basically it was another colossal waste of time and money to restore a shit building in a mundane city that no one has every visited as a tourist?
I shouldn’t be amazed at this, but they managed to spaff £33m just to do up a few rooms and wedge in some rubbish exhibits! They’d have been better off converting it to flats. But they’d have fucked that up too.
“The trust previously said the revamp, funded by sources including Nottingham city council and the Heritage Lottery Fund”
So £33m of printed money has been pissed up against a [castle] wall. Very nice for the building contractors and all the middle class ‘heritage consultants’ involved. Not so nice for the UK public facing 10% inflation from too much money chasing too few goods.
And whats the odds that it was all done in the usual woke manner of ‘celebrating diversity’ etc etc, when all the visiting public (or at least their kids) want from a castle is weapons, dungeons, gore and maybe some gold treasure?
£33m spent/wasted for a hoped-for 300,000 visitors p.a.? The entry tickets must be very very expensive!
If you are in the area and into castles I suggest Lincoln is a much better experience.
Go Woko Panojoko, go broko!
Jim,
“And whats the odds that it was all done in the usual woke manner of ‘celebrating diversity’ etc etc, when all the visiting public (or at least their kids) want from a castle is weapons, dungeons, gore and maybe some gold treasure?”
Drag story hour at the castle: https://twitter.com/NottmCastle/status/1551922513738874885?s=20&t=PbwFsiwwLlu6fOodRKsCdw
Feminist art: https://twitter.com/NottmCastle/status/1513438264677519363?s=20&t=PbwFsiwwLlu6fOodRKsCdw
Socialism: https://twitter.com/ChrisReynolds68/status/1494980000038199296?s=20&t=PbwFsiwwLlu6fOodRKsCdw
The influence of lottery funding is huge and pernicious. I think French museums get it right more often because they’re locally run and funded and seem to stick to the knitting. They are essentially about bringing in more visitors, who will stay in hotels and spend money, so are more orientated to what the public want.
“Serious questions now need to be asked about the governance of the castle and what the next steps are to preserve this important collection and space for the people of Nottingham.”
Travellers’ site. That’s one thing they never seem to have enough of.
It does have a great cave system underneath it though that could be turned into a good tourist attraction with a bit of creativity.
I must say that the only time I visited Nottingham Castle, as a yoof interested in castle, I was, shall we say, disappointed.
This country is awfully well provided with castles for the public to visit. Selling it to a plutocrat might be reasonable.
If I were a Prepper my first question would be whether the castle has its own water supply. The caves sound as if they might be converted into bomb shelters/safe rooms/storage spaces. Hm. What’s the asking price (in GBP not crypto coins)?
I know; tell the chap who used to own Chelsea that he can come back as long as he buys both Nottingham Forest and Nottingham Castle. He’d perhaps have to dredge the Trent a bit to get his super yacht to Nottingham; would he need to dig a canal if he wanted to berth his super yacht at the foot of his hill?
Still, a better bet than HS2, eh? Nottingham – your inland freeport. He might be the very chap to develop that idea.
Most people will associate Nottingham with Robin Hood and his feud with the sheriff of Nottingham. Well, the forest is gone – but couldn’t they do an archeological dig and find some pieces connected to him? And prove that way that he really existed?
So I hope some entrepreneur will take over and make the whole thing a “Robin Hood” Disneyland..
Yeah Watzi W. If I went to Nottingham, that’s what I’d be looking for.
I suspect the public reaction to a Robin of Loxley theme park would be not to give a Friar Tuck.
You can take the kids, as there is a Little John …
“the forest is gone”: oh no it isn’t.
Pendantry, I know… but that’s a manor on the
ruinssite of a previous castle.And for 33 million they could have built a new one. Like Guédelon Castle. And most likely attracted more tourists that way.
Does the place have rows of large cannons firing, clouds of smoke and lots of noise, the stuff people (me, anyway) would like to see..? A trebuchet launching a car into the distance? Or boring culturally correct displays of trivia.
Hooters on the way to the football/cricket grounds is the only reason to visit Nottingham…