The Park Tunnel (again...)

I had to go and pick up Katie's contact lenses earlier so I had a proper look at the Park Tunnel. Beck had asked me what was at the far end of it and, of course, on Wednesday I'd only gone down the steps at the top of the Ropewalk to take a few pictures and then re-emerged to be reunited with my fearful daughter. Anyway, this morning I wandered along to the Park end of the tunnel where it comes out by the Nottingham Lawn Tennis Association courts in a residential enclave just about as posh and blossomy as you might imagine. The Park Estate is a private housing estate to the west of Nottingham city centre and the tunnel was originally ordered by the Fifth Duke of Newcastle as part of it's development to allow wealthy residents access via horsedrawn carriage (though apparently the gradient turned out to be too steep which somewhat defeated the object.) I had thought that access out onto Derby Road was blocked now but it turns out that you can go up some little steps and out into the parking area at the side of some new flats. From the other side it just looks like access to underground parking but when you go through you're presented with this amazing sandstone edifice - a little bit of urban magic, I fully recomend checking it out if you're in Nottingham anytime.