City of Caves

City of Caves is a visitor attraction in Nottingham which consists of a network of caves, carved out of sandstone that have been variously used over the years as a tannery, public house cellars, and as an air raid shelter. The city of Nottingham has hundreds of man-made caves, which have been in use for over a thousand years.City of Caves is accessed from the upper level of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. The attraction has been run by the Egalitarian Trust, which also runs the Galleries of Justice, since 2004 and a joint ticket is available for visitors to visit both attractions.HistoryNottingham sits upon a soft sandstone ridge which can easily be dug with simple hand tools to create artificial cave dwellings. Indeed, Nottingham was known as Tigguo Cobauc in Old Brythonic meaning Place of Caves and was referred to as such by the Welsh Bishop of Sherborne Asser in his The Life of King Alfred (893AD). The caves here are some of the oldest remaining in the city, with pottery finds dating them to 1270-1300, and were inhabited from at least the 17th century until 1845 when the St. Mary's Inclosure Act banned the renting of cellars and caves as homes for the poor. None of the caves are natural; they were all cut into the sandstone for use as houses, cellars and place of work by the inhabitants of the city.