Located in the East Midlands of England, in Nottinghamshire County, University Park Campus of The University of Nottingham sits 2 miles from Nottingham city centre. Its vast size encompasses Highfields Lake and stretches of greenery like The Downs. It’s no wonder University Park Campus is home to an enormous variety of life within its modern buildings and landscaped gardens, as well as historic buildings and woodlands. From wildlife to student life, staff, and visitors, University Park is a truly remarkable location.
In 1919, 35 acres of land of the Highfield Estate were bought by Sir Jesse Boot (founder of pharmaceutical company, Boots). He decided to donate the land to build the University on and by 1928, the first new building of University Park Campus erected was the Trent building (University of Nottingham, 2022). At present, the prestigious Russell group university campus has undergone many changes, with additions such as the Medical School, Queens Medical Centre, which was built in 1970 (University of Nottingham, 2022) and is connected to the rest of the campus via Ningbo Friendship Bridge. The campus has now expanded ten-fold to be over 300 acres (University of Nottingham, 2022), making it the largest of University of Nottingham’s campuses, rich with niches and species.
A foggy early morning by Highfields Park Lake, with a sprinkling of frost
Going back to the 12th century however, the landscape on which the campus sits, wasn’t always so grand. Prior to its development, the land was owned and used by the monks of Lenton Priory, who used it for cultivating crops and livestock grazing. The presences of a rabbit warren and fishpond were their sources of food. The land, which sits near the River Leen and in sight of Nottingham Castle, was bought and sold multiple times, often being used for grazing and with additional buildings such as Lenton Abbey house, Lenton Hall and Highfields House being added to form the residential area of Lenton Park. Notably, in the gardens of Highfields House, owned by Joseph Lowe, was a lake, which later extended to become the Highfields Boating Lake the University Campus is built around today (Jones, 2014).
In the 21st century, University Park is known for being credited for where Sir Peter Mansfield constructed the first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner in the School of Physics, awarding him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2003. In the same year, the Nobel Prize for Economic Science was awarded to former student, lecturer and professor, Professor Clive Granger (University of Nottingham, 2022). In fact, the University is 8th in the UK Top 10 Universities for research excellence framework (The Guardian, 2014). The University presents an impressive economic and social impact, supporting 14,000 jobs in Nottingham each year and a £677m total annual economic impact across Nottingham by students and staff, tourism, visitors and research (University of Nottingham, 2015). The link between the University and the public, where the staff and students can advertise their work to the public with exhibitions, is Lakeside Arts Centre. Annually, over 200,000 people engage with programmes at Lakeside Arts on University Park (Nottingham Lakeside Arts, 2022).
A cloudy afternoon view from the top of the tower building, University Park
The famous boating lake adjacent to Lakesides Arts is home to all forms of life, such as the ecosystems in the lake, in the woodland that surrounds it and the hidden habitats scattered throughout Highfields Park. The lake also attracts those who want a romantic ride on the rowboats. The entirety of the projects on this website are based at University Park Campus, mostly due to the sheer amount of land that allows many interesting organisms to thrive. Linked at the bottom of this page and in the navigation bar, the ID project introduces some of the organisms of University Park, including species of fungus, plants, vertebrates and invertebrates.
Along with the flora and fauna, the people are what make University Park special. The campus boasts the largest international student body in the region. With around 40,000 people studying and working across the UKs campuses, students help commercially with bringing in money to the area. In fact, University Park Campus is so big, students use the free hopper buses to get from one end of campus to the other or between campuses. There are also thousands of cycle parking spaces on campus, with the University investing in safe cycle paths and facilities on campus (University of Nottingham, 2022). The environmentally conscious campus also provides its own compost from food and garden waste to fertilise campus soils, has a recycle rate of 99% and with over 8,000 trees on campus it is soon to become a national arboretum (University of Nottingham, 2022). It was awarded multiple Green Flags and second most sustainable campus in the world (UI GreenMetric, 2021).
The evening glow of the University Park science buildings
For a unique perspective, I wondered what this location would look like through the eyes of different organisms you could find there, as well as at different times of day during Autumn: early morning, afternoon and evening. The once lush stretches of grass and trees become skeletal and blanketed with morning frost. Cloudy skies look down onto the campus grounds on many of the autumn afternoons. After sunset, the windows of the campus buildings become illuminated with staff and students working late into the early hours. The images on this page were all taken with a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the landscape as possible.
References:
Jones, J. 2014. The Historic Houses of University Park. [ebook] University of Nottingham, Estates Department, 2014, pp.3-6. Available at: <https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/SiteData/Root/File/Visit%20us/heritageguide.pdf> [Accessed 11 January 2022].
Nottingham.ac.uk. 2022. A brief history of the University - The University of Nottingham. [online] Available at: <https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/history/abriefhistoryoftheuniversity.aspx> [Accessed 10 January 2022].
Nottingham.ac.uk. 2022. Cycling - The University of Nottingham. [online] Available at: <https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability/transport/cycling/cycling.aspx> [Accessed 12 January 2022].
Nottingham.ac.uk. 2015. The Economic Impact of Britain’s Global University. [online] Available at: <https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/economic-impact/documents/economic-impact-study.pdf> [Accessed 11 January 2022]
Nottingham.ac.uk. 2022. University College History - The University of Nottingham. [online] Available at:<https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/university/university-college-introduction.aspx> [Accessed 12 January 2022].
Nottingham.ac.uk. 2022. Waste and Recycling - The University of Nottingham. [online] Available at: <https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability/waste/waste.aspx> [Accessed 12 January 2022].
Nottingham Lakeside Arts. 2022. Nottingham Lakeside Arts. [online] Available at: <https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/about-us.html> [Accessed 14 January 2022].
The Guardian. 2014. University Research Excellence Framework 2014 – the full rankings. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2014/dec/18/university-research-excellence-framework-2014-full-rankings> [Accessed 10 January 2022].
UI GreenMetric. 2021. Top 10 Most Sustainable Universities. [online] Greenmetric.ui.ac.id. Available at: <https://greenmetric.ui.ac.id> [Accessed 13 January 2022].
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STUDIO PROJECT
ID PROJECT
IMAGE ANALYSIS
PHOTO STORY
FILM PROJECT