The real Gotham: The unique connection between Nottingham and Batman
Nottingham is pretty great, with plenty of shops, supposedly the oldest pub in England, great gig venues, Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood was said to hide out, and, most importantly, Batman’s gaff.
One of the first connections between the comic book icon and the city is due to the 2005 film Batman Begins, in which Christian Bale played the superhero otherwise known as Bruce Wayne, where Christopher Nolan filmed the exteriors of Wayne Manor in Nottingham, specifically, Wollaton Hall, a country house built in the 16th century.
While it’s now a natural history museum, 20 years ago, you could find a whole film crew attempting to bring the building to the big screen, putting the English city on the map as the backdrop for a massive Hollywood film.
The Batman connection to Nottingham doesn’t end there, though, as just a few miles out from the city centre is a village called Gotham, and while it might be pronounced Goat-em, it actually did serve as the inspiration for the fictional crime-ridden city, even if Batman’s creator, Bill Finger, had never been to the Nottinghamshire village.
Back in the time of King John, the story goes that a highway was proposed to run through the small village of Gotham, but the residents didn’t want one. So, to scare the idea away, they all pretended to be absolutely bonkers; this way, they surely couldn’t be trusted to build a road. Moreover, no one wanted to go near Gotham because madness was believed to be contagious back then, and hence they successfully tricked people into thinking they were all crazy, especially with the help of a cuckoo bird, which they kept captive in a bush.
This led to the old ‘Wise Men of Gotham’ stories, which have inspired songs and myths for centuries; building up a reputation as a village full of mad people, American writer Washington Irving soon took the place’s name and used it to describe the chaotic and strange city of New York in his satire Salmagundi Papers.
Irving referred to New York as Gotham, and then, years later, Finger was inspired by this nickname when creating his own version of New York for his comic book series. Even though the people of Gotham weren’t actually mad, and that story probably wasn’t even true, it’s use as a synonym for craziness soon caught on, leading it to be appropriated as the name for the grimy city that Batman calls home.
So, not only can you visit Wayne Manor if you’re ever in Nottinghamshire, but you can visit the village that originated the name of Batman’s home city, and you can even see the spot where it is said the Wise Men of Gotham enacted their crazy cuckoo plan, fencing a bird in a bush to prove just how unhinged they were.
While Nottingham might seem like a far cry from the world of Batman, one of the most beloved superhero franchises of all time, interestingly enough, it has various connections to the character and his crime-infested world, which he tries so hard to fight. You certainly won’t find men changing into lycra, donning capes, and coming face to face with the Joker here, but you can see little Batman symbols illuminated on the back of buses that run nearby, which is really quite sweet.
