Nottingham, United Kingdom

Nottingham is situated on an area of low hills along the lower valley of the River Trent, and is surrounded by the Sherwood Forest in the north, the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield in the west, and the Trent and Belvoir Vales in the east and south.

Within the city native wildlife includes red fox, peregrine falcon and common kingfisher. Notable nature reserves around the city include Attenborough Nature Reserve SSSI, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, Holme Pit SSSI, Fairham Brook Local Wildlife Site and Wollaton Park. Owing to its position as a central city with strong transport links, Nottingham has become home to invasive animal and plant species including rose-ringed parakeet, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam.

In 2017, it was reported that Nottingham was one of a number of UK cities that broke WHO air pollution guidelines for the maximum concentration of small particulate matter, the pollution in part being caused by wood-burning stoves.

Nottingham is bounded by a green belt, provisionally drawn up from the 1950s. Completely encircling the city, it extends for several miles into the surrounding districts as well as towards Derby.

Nottingham is the East Midlands' largest economy. Although not within the Nottingham city boundary, areas around the city are affluent and commuter belt for the city. Rushcliffe in 2025 out of 543 parliamentary constituencies came out at 538, making the area one of the most affluent constituencies in England.

The headquarters of several large companies are based in the city: these include Alliance Boots (formerly Boots the Chemists); Chinook Sciences; GM (cricket bats); Pedigree Petfoods; VF Corporation (American clothing); Changan Automobile (Chinese-made automobiles); the credit reference agency Experian; energy company E.ON Energy UK; betting company Gala Bingo; amusement and gambling machine manufacturer Bell-Fruit-Games; engineering company Siemens; sportswear manufacturers Speedo; high-street opticians Vision Express and Specsavers; games and publishing company Games Workshop; PC software developer Serif Europe (publisher of PagePlus and other titles); web hosting provider Heart Internet; the American credit card company Capital One.

Nottingham Central Library opened in November 2023 at a cost of more than £10 million and provides books, computer access and other public services.

Galleries include Nottingham Contemporary art centre in the Lace Market, opened in 2009, and New Art Exchange contemporary art gallery, the largest in the UK dedicated to showing diverse artists, opened in 2008.

Nottingham has a range of public artworks across the city, largely from the twentieth century. These include traditional statues such as Robin Hood by James Woodford, and Lee Johnson's statue of Brian Clough. Contemporary artwork includes Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror at Nottingham Playhouse, and Aspire by Ken Shuttleworth at the University of Nottingham. In 2018, Nottingham City Council commissioned three new artworks on the site of Lenton Priory. These include 'Lenton Priory Stone' by James Winnet based the carvings on the 12th century Norman baptismal font from the Priory, and the 'Lenton Priory Pillars' by Adrian Riley.

Nottingham has two large-capacity theatres, the Nottingham Playhouse and the Theatre Royal, which together with the neighbouring Royal Concert Hall forms the Royal Centre. The city also contains smaller theatre venues such as the Nottingham Arts Theatre, the Lace Market Theatre, New Theatre and Nonsuch Studios.

Almost 62,000 students attend the city's three universities, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Law and the University of Nottingham; in the 2016/17 academic year, Trent University was attended by 29,370 students and Nottingham University by 32,515. The University of Nottingham Medical School is part of the Queen's Medical Centre.

There are three colleges of further education in Nottingham: Bilborough College is solely a sixth form college; Nottingham College was formed in 2017 by the amalgamation of Central College Nottingham and New College Nottingham (which had both previously formed from the merger of smaller FE colleges); and the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, owned by Nottingham Trent University, is a further-education college that specialises in media. The city has dozens of sixth-form colleges and academies, providing education and training for adults aged over sixteen.

Nottingham also has a number of independent schools. The city's oldest educational establishment is Nottingham High School, a day school founded in 1513. The school used to be for boys only but became coeducational in 2015. Nottingham Girls' High School is another independent school but for girls only. Founded in 1875, it is now part of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST).