One of the most attractive university campuses in the world must be Nottingham University.  It is a vast area with large open spaces, many trees, attractive gardens and landscaping and a large lake for boating, all thanks to the founder of Boots the chemist.  After his father died in 1860, Jesse Boot had to leave school at the age of ten to help his mother run their small herbalist store in Nottingham.  He and his sister would go out searching for herbs then he started to develop the shop working very long hours and quickly built up the stores until eventually there were 560 Boots chemists across the land by 1914. He and his wife helped the poor and set up schemes to help and educate their workers. When Nottingham University’s first campus located in the city centre was no longer large enough to accommodate the students he donated a huge estate for a new university park and provided the finance for the university buildings and also landscaping for the physical health of the students. The main building which is the administrative centre was built in1928 and called the Trent building after Jesse Boot was created 1st Baron Trent of Nottingham in recognition of his philanthropic gifts of over £440,000 or the equivalence to over £9,000,000 in today’s terms. 
The Trent building in Nottingham is topped by a beautiful clock tower which rises dramatically above the building and is a focal point for the whole campus. The university has campuses in Malaysia and China where they have copied the Trent Building and China includes an exact replica of the clock tower.  This side view is from the café area where we enjoyed meeting with several old friends.