The Park Tunnel was built in 1855 to allow access between

The Park Estate The Park Estate is a private residential housing estate to the west of Nottingham city centre, England. It is noted for its Victorian architecture, although many of the houses have been altered, extended or converted into Apartment, flats. The e ...

and Derby Road in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

city of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. The tunnel is listed as a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

with a list entry number of 1059025.

Description

The tunnel is approximately in length, with a central open section some in length. From The Park Estate end, the tunnel is approached from Tunnel Road, and the original vehicular nature of the tunnel is clear from the ramped access. The first section of tunnel passes under Newcastle Drive and the Ropewalk and is unlined, being carved from the natural Nottingham Castle Sandstone. An open section in the centre of the tunnel provides natural light and ventilation, and a staircase ascends around the wall of this opening to the junction of the Ropewalk with Upper College Street. A second tunnel section passes under College Street whilst rising to meet Derby Road, but has been modified and partially blocked by subsequent building works, and access to Derby Road is now via a flight of stairs into the car park of the building above.

Historical background

The Park Estate was formerly a private hunting park for the Duke of Newcastle who was also the owner of the adjacent

Nottingham Castle Nottingham Castle is a Stuart Restoration-era ducal mansion in Nottingham, England, built on the site of a Norman castle built starting in 1068, and added to extensively through the medieval period, when it was an important royal fortress and o ...

. The Fifth Duke of Newcastle retained architect Thomas Chambers (T.C.) Hine (1813–1899) to design and build the Park Tunnel (primarily as the main entrance to the Park) and to develop the Park as a residential area in central Nottingham for the wealthier members of society. T.C.Hine was also made responsible for the later repair of Nottingham Castle and its conversion into a museum.

Purpose

The tunnel was intended to allow access to and from the park by

horse-drawn carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

s, and the original requirement was for a tunnel with a maximum

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

of 1 in 14 and the ability for coaches to pass each other within the tunnel. As built, the tunnel actually had a gradient of 1 in 12, which was considered too great for horse-drawn carriages, and as easier accesses were constructed elsewhere in The Park Estate, it never fulfilled its original purpose. However the tunnel is still in use, providing pedestrian access to and from The Park Estate.

References

{{reflist, 30em Buildings and structures in Nottingham Grade II listed buildings in Nottinghamshire Grade II listed tunnels Road tunnels in England Transport in Nottingham Tunnels completed in 1855 Tunnels in Nottinghamshire