Nottingham Castle

[mary1947 1,876]

I was in my teenage years, Sunday afternoon was the best time to meet.  but it was me and Brenda Wessellbery every Sunday we would pay 6d to get into the castle, but i think we were robbed has we never did meet a fellow. Best place for fellows was the ice rink Saturday afternoon, you see i had been skating for a while and if i saw a young man who was just keeping from falling down I would always go and help him.

[LizzieM 9,222]

How wonderful, Nottingham City Council are going to write off £2.68 million! They’ve been in control for 30 years, time for a change, time for a group of dedicated people who know how to run a business efficiently.  
EDIT:  No doubt ‘somebody’ has done alright out of the Castle Fiasco, and it’s not the council tax payers who will of course see a very large increase come next April.  

[Newarker 17]

I'm sure this is not an original thought but whoever decided the entry charges seems to have looked at the cost of refurbishment and then worked out how much they needed to charge to recover the costs. This of course was the wrong way round. People will not pay over the odds to get the Trust/City Council out of a hole but will compare the cost with other attractions and decide whether it is value for money.

 

Adrian Jones and Chris Matthews in their book Towns in Britain say the pre-refurbishment castle was the dreariest museum and art gallery you can imagine. From comments here and elsewhere it seems little has changed. The best city museums I know are the Museum of Liverpool, Hull Streetlife Museum and York Castle Museum. They have ditched the old pots and pictures idea in favour of displays people can relate to about industry, sport, entertainment etc and I had hoped Nottingham would produce something similar.

 

I don't know how Nottingham's council tax compares but the city suffers from covering a very small area for a major city. Most British cities include the outer suburbs within the city boundary, so in Nottingham's case it should really include Arnold, Carlton, West Bridgford, Beeston etc.  The result is that the city has high maintenance (in the financial and literal sense) socio-economic  problems which have to be paid for by a relatively low population. A Greater Nottingham council area would spread the cost. I believe one reason this has not been done is to give each of the district councils roughly the same population.

 

Brilliant postings by  Benjamin on the SN&SM theme!