Now there's an evocative name - Maid Marian Way. If I tell you it runs close to the base of Castle Rock, in the shadow of Nottingham
Castle, what pictures does it conjure up in your mind? Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman camping it up? Errol Flynn (or was it Clark Gable?)
leaping around in monochrome Lincoln green? Or perhaps it's a dashing Disney fox running rings round a lion with a crown that doesn't fit?
Whatever your pre-course studying, come hither and let me dispel those myths.
Maid Marian Way is ugly. It is so ugly that it's won prizes for it - no word of a lie. It amounts to a snarled up dual carriageway that
skirts round the city centre, lined with an ill-conceived, ill-matched series of buildings that taste forgot. The Holiday Inn jostles with a
couple of multi-storey car parks (they have to go somewhere) on one side and faces the dour old BT office block. Sixties office blocks with
arcades of shops beneath. And yet...
Not before time, Maid Marian Way is being attended to. Trendy new restaurants and coffee shops now occupy the street level units and towers
are being given facelifts. Hopefully this will be done sympathetically as the street also features some beautiful old buildings and only a
few yards away are some of the city's finest treasures.
Near the southern end of the Way, and a little too close to the hideous Broadmarsh shopping centre for comfort, can be found two venerable
old hostelries, The Salutation Inn ('The Sal' to those in the know) and the Royal Children. These are pubs for drinking ale in
- none of your fancy food or nothing - just ale. In my early pub-going days upstairs at the Sal was something of a biker hangout - times
seem to have changed and Nottingham's thousands of students have spread near and far.
Further up the Way you cannot miss The Tales of Robin Hood - visitor experience par excellence complete with medieval smells. I am
ashamed to say, dear readers, that I have yet to venture into this establishment. When the little fella is born, I promise. Carrying on up
the street one moves into hotel territory with not one but two Holiday Inns in the space of a hundred yards and, now occupying the old BT
offices, the rather plush Park Plaza Hotel (0845 634 9995 for reservations). Don't be fooled by the exterior, this is a new, stylishly
decorated (contemporary minimalism - dig the clear glass basins) hotel. The Redhead and I and the remnants of our reception party spent the
night there after our wedding (August 2003 when she was still the Blonde, rooms £80-£200 a night). The accompanying bar/restaurant, Chino
Latino, is so hip it hurts - Asian cuisine and killer cocktails. Once the B52s started the guests started dropping like flies and carnage
ensued. Having breakfast in there felt somewhat incongruous, something like returning to the scene of the crime.
Halfway up Maid Marian Way is bisected by Friar Lane which runs up to the gate of Nottingham Castle. Most people's first reaction?
"Castle? That's not a castle." And how right they are. There hasn't been a 'castley' castle (with turrets and crinkly edges) for many a year.
The mansion that stands on the top of Castle Rock now appeared after the English Civil War, the previous castle having fallen from Royalist
hands and been destroyed. It now houses a museum and art gallery (Mon-Fri free admission, weekends and bank holidays £2/£1) which are just
OK. The grounds are worth a wander and the Rock commands impressive views across the city and beyond.
The real treasures of the castle are found around the base of the Rock down Castle Road. Near the Castle Gate you will find The Castle
pub (can you see what they did there?). I've whiled away several pleasant evenings drinking in more refined company than you might find
closer to the Market Square. Expensive enough to frighten away the riff-raff intent on getting ratted as quickly as possible. Wandering
further down Castle Road one passes the statue of Robin Hood. Admire his sturdy calves. Another hundred yards further on is Ye Olde
Trip To Jerusalem, one of the countries half a dozen claimants to 'the oldest pub in England' crown. Allegedly in business since 1189,
'The Trip' really looks the part. The inside is a mess of rooms on various levels, some carved back into the rock. Food is served during the
day and is OK; the Sunday Roast is pleasant and a Yorkshire pudding with the dinner on the inside is comforting in a 'carbohydratey' kind of
way. The experience is more important. You can even buy a T-shirt.
And if you find yourself in Nottingham on expenses (particularly generous expenses that is) then two of the city's priciest chic restaurants
can be found within yards of Maid Marian Way. World Service (Castle Gate, 0115 847 5587 - reservations can be made online) is,
simply put, bloody marvellous. Discretely tucked away in an understated mansion that it shares with the Services Club (hence the name) you
enter through a Balinese garden which immediately puts you at ease. The menu changes fairly frequently - check out the website for the latest
but leave it until you've had your lunch. Harts (Park Row, 0115 911 0666) is a chic contemporary English Restaurant overlooking the
wealthy Park area of the city. It's a once a year, birthday treat kind of place housed in a part of the beautiful Victorian Infirmary
building. Attentive but discreet service, sublime food with a lot of arty vertical stacking, but at a price. Expect to pay around £25-30 a
head for a 3 course meal (without drinks) at World Service or Harts. The Redhead and I are confirmed 'foodies'; treats like these sustain us
through the dreary Midland winters.
So the advice is to get over first impressions and give Maid Marian a chance - she is concealing some of the city's gems under her
distasteful concrete skirts.