Being home to diverse and creative figureheads such as Romantic poet Lord Byron and fashion designer Paul Smith, Nottingham is rightly seen as an artistic melting pot.
Live in Nottingham? Not as bad or actually far worse? Discuss with others and rate the area >>
On the face of it this vibrant East Midlands city should be a winner, with loads more on offer than most other places nationwide. But (once again) it's crime that drags this place down into our worst list. Long gone are the romantic days of Robin Hood robbing the rich to feed the poor.
There's nothing chivalrous about the gangs round here, with burglary and theft from cars being higher here than anywhere else in the UK.
Designer and high street fashions, a varied programme at the Royal Concert Hall, the International Children's Theatre and Dance Festival and even a visit from the Bolshoi Ballet are just some of the cultural attractions that this East Midlands city can lay claim to.
Food on offer in the city takes a similarly all-inclusive approach, with over 300 places to eat situated in the city centre, taking in all manner of cuisine from British and French to Japanese, Lebanese and Thai for those with a more expansive palate.
A recently redeveloped Old Market Square still harks back to Nottingham's rich past, also evident at Nottingham Castle - an 11th century construct near the banks of the River Trent which now houses a museum and art gallery.
Ranked second and third on this list in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Nottingham is of course also famous for its tales of Robin Hood - a dweller of Sherwood Forest and, in robbing from the rich to give to the poor, was the arbiter of what may have been the world's first progressive taxation policy. Sadly, residents of contemporary Nottingham appear to have taken to heart the ideology of everyone's favourite outlaw - theft of vehicles here is twice the average rate nationally, while burglaries are nearly five times more common than the English average.
With two major universities located in Nottingham, it's a haven for students and is among the youngest cities in the UK with 27 per cent of its population being between the ages of 20 and 34. Opportunities for higher education are rife, although more rudimentary educational routes are not always exploited fully. More than 17 per cent of residents in Nottingham do not hold any formal qualifications whatsoever, a figure which is comfortably worse than the national average of 13.8 per cent, suggesting that its schools are among the lower achievers in the country.
<< Go back to the index to learn about more places in the top and bottom 20
Have your say and see what other people are saying about Nottingham and the other 433 UK boroughs >>
Find out which borough came in at 3rd in our Worst 20 >>
Local area info on Nottingham from upmystreet.com >>
Nottingham City Council >>
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