The park tunnel, built in 1855 was traditionally made as a tunnel for horse drawn carriages to pass through from derby road to the castle. However this purpose was over ridden, when the Duke of Newcastle, who owned the Nottingham Castle Mansion, specified the gradient of the tunnel must be 1 in 14, but was actually made at 1 in 12, which was considered too steep and impractical for the horse drawn carriages so other routes had to be made. Since then, the Tunnel was used by wealthier members of the public, as the park was turned into a recreational area for the wealthy city occupants. Built in a yellow sandstone, in a very green area, the Park Tunnel has proved a respected feature of Nottingham. The tunnel's origin dates back to 1827, where design proposals where found by the architect Peter Frederick Robinson, although the construction of the tunnel was overlooked by the architect Thomas Chambers Hine, who worked for the Duke of Newcastle.
When approaching the tunnel, it almost seems to appear out of no where! However, when I walked down the stairs, and the view gets better down the tunnel, and the bursts of lights break through the darkness, I got a sort of unusual feeling which almost made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Weather it was due to the fact I was on my own at dusk; or that I'm from an area where walking through a city tunnel at night probably isn't the best idea; or it could even be because of the large range of contrasts of light which project unusual shaped shadows onto the walls, which was the most interesting part about the tunnels, as I found the sandstone almost illuminates parts of the tunnel, when the light enters at a certain angle and a certain time of the day.
references:
-http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/whatnall1928/park_tunnel.htm - accessed on 28/04/14
-http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/exhibitions/online/park/tchine.aspx - accessed on 28/04/14
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