Lincoln City
Lincoln vs Nottingham, a tale of two cities.
By theimps.tk
December 18 2008
I've lived in Nottingham since July and I feel I can now make a decent comparison of the two cities. It's been a mixed time since I left the city that I had spent the first near-24 years of my life and in all honesty, I've struggled to think of many reasons why I would consider staying in Nottingham once my tenancy agreement is up, but how do the two cities compare? I have lived in Nottingham now since July 4th 2008 and it's been a strange six months and I feel I know enough about my new place of residence to make a comparison between the two. For example Nottingham kicks Lincoln's arse when it comes to things to do, but the folk of Nottingham are quite frankly amongst the rudest I've ever known. Below is a list of categories and a comparison between the two cities and my own personal experiences.
PEOPLE
As mentioned before, I find the people of Nottingham to be extremely rude. The amount of times that I have joined the back of a queue, only to have someone push in front of me, is something that happens on a regular, day to day basis. I call it the "Train Station Mentality Theory," basically it's the attitude you see at a train station of "I don't care when you got here, I'm getting on this train before you!" I think it's a good theory in all fairness because how many times do you stand on a train platform and someone who arrives at the last minute just pushes their way to the front, ahead of people who have waited patiently? That's Nottingham all over really.
Granted, Lincoln's not great but at least the majority in Lincoln are polite, say thank you and hold the door open for others. Plus, I would never have to put up with my psychotic room-mate in Lincoln, infact, I'm not even going to start on her because I'd be here all day.
Overall, the winning City is Lincoln by quite some way. Granted, Lincoln does have a certain populous that are just out to save the word, but I think the best quote I can find about the general populous of Nottingham comes from the recent Batman movie, The Dark Knight....
"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
LINCOLN 1 NOTTINGHAM 0
TRANSPORT
In all fairness, Nottingham is far better for transport than Lincoln in many areas. For a start the train system leads you to far more locations than Lincoln ever would directly. For example, trains from Lincoln only really directly go places such as Grimsby, Sheffield, Leicester and Peterborough. However, you can go to London directly from Nottingham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Norwich and many other places. Infact, trains from Nottingham are quite reasonably priced, I got all the way to High Wycombe for "just" £44.
Lincoln is far simpler in terms of road systems. I could drive from my parent's house to my flat in Hyson Green and go through thirteen two lanes into one systems, quite possibly the most irritating type of road system, and yet every single one is in Nottinghamshire. The one piece of advice I will give to all those who find themselves driving through Nottingham and are sat at traffic lights ahead of a two on one lane system, ALWAYS be in the right hand lane....you'll soon find out why I advise that if you ever happen to go into the left hand lane.
The tram system in Nottingham is a bit difficult to describe. It's £2.70 for a return, but that might not be great value unless you travel pretty much the full distance. However, with a tram leaving the tram stop everyone three or so minutes, it is a good way of getting somewhere quickly. The only similarly regular service in Lincoln are buses to Birchwood, leaving every five or so seconds from the bus station.
I think Nottingham wins this simply because of the variety of transport methods and because it's right next to a motorway, whereas you have to travel 15 miles to get to one from Lincoln.
LINCOLN 1 NOTTINGHAM 1
THINGS TO DO
If there is going to be one specific part of this survey that Nottingham kicks Lincoln's arse, it is going to be things to do. Lincoln has one relatively over-priced cinema, a few decent restaurants or one half-filled shopping centre that you're only going to be interested in if you're...
- A) Looking for a mobile phone
- B) A teenage, female chav who has no fashion sense
Whereas in Nottingham there are numerous cinemas, many museums, many bars for those who want to go around drinking all over the place. There's several HUGE (and filled) shopping centres with a variety of different of different shops available. Infact, Nottingham city centre is huge, it takes hours of walking around to cover the centre, whereas it would take an hour, at most, to walk around Lincoln's City centre.
For all those that know me, it's obvious that I prefer rock music and I quite easily find Nottingham to be better for rock music venues than Lincoln. Lincoln has Cubes, which although it isn't bad, it isn't great and becomes overcrowded really easily, Nottingham has Rock City and the Pit & Pendulum. Then again, if you're a chav then there seems to be plenty of places where you can hear Chavcada, Chav-Hunter and all of that R&B/Hip-Hop rubbish.
LINCOLN 1 NOTTINGHAM 2
SAFETY
I never thought I'd be saying the word safety in an article where I was talking about Nottingham.....because Nottingham is as rough as Amy Winehouse. In the first two months of moving to the city, my car had gotten broken into three times, something that hasn't didn't even come close to happening in Lincoln.
You could walk through Lincoln at 2am and not have a single problem except for the odd person asking you if you know where to get some weed. Nottingham on the other hand is quite different as anyone could easily just pop out at any time and just attack you.
LINCOLN 2 NOTTINGHAM 2
BEAUTY
Lincoln is a far more beautiful city than Nottingham. Don't get me wrong, Nottingham has it's nice areas, Market Square to be precise, but otherwise Nottingham is a bit of a urban-craphole. There isn't one area of Nottingham that I have found that is more beautiful than it's Lincoln equivalent (if Lincoln had an equivalent that is).
Nottingham has plenty of disused shop outlets, infact, there is one not too far from myself which advertised selling costumes......for the Millennium New Year. At least if there's a time in Lincoln that a shop goes under, it's replaced with a week or two. This abundance of emptiness is what makes Nottingham a bit ugly in a lot of places, especially the Alfreton Road area.
LINCOLN 3 NOTTINGHAM 2
NEWSPAPER
I've always been one simply for the sports section of the newspaper and there are one or two things that I've noticed about the two.
The Lincolnshire Echo will always have the following beginning to a sentence "The former <insert name of team> ace/star/player," mention that the pies/drinks/seats weren't warm enough for their liking or just generally give out 6s and 7s in the player ratings, that regardless of the ratings.
The Nottingham Evening Post on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish. It always focuses on Forest and during it the same the headlines were "<insert player> expects Forest to challenge," and now it's always "<insert player> predicts that Forest will survive." Not exactly a great variation in titles I'm sure you'll agree.
Overall, I'd say that Lincoln has to win this again because of the simple fact it's non-League section is more in depth.
LINCOLN 4 NOTTINGHAM 2
FOOTBALL TEAMS
Well I'm sure you'll all be aware that Nottingham has two teams, Forest and County. One wants to convince you that they are still a big club despite the fact they've been a bit rubbish for the majority of their footballing life, the other is a massive under-achiever. Infact, Forest are so obsessed by their past glories that a statue of Brian Clough was recently erected in the Market Square area of the City. Neither ground creates a great atmosphere, but the strange thing is that I very rarely see anyone with any Notts County paraphernalia on, as opposed to the Forest fans not being afraid to show their colours.
Lincoln has three football sides, City, United and Railway Moorlands. We all know about City, a club that has never really achieved anything, nor are we likely to anytime soon, whereas the other two are both far down the non-League structure. United have only ever made the FA Cup 1st Round twice (including a 7-0 thrashing at home to Huddersfield Town), whereas I couldn't even tell you what division Moorlands are on.
Overall, just simply because they have a side that is one division (quite probably soon to be two divisions) away from the Premiership, Nottingham wins.
LINCOLN 4 NOTTINGHAM 3
So, we're currently at 4-3 and now entering the final category and the final one is a personal one for me and it's ....
THE HOME FACTOR
I've lived in Nottingham for nearly six months and not once has this place felt like home. I'm longing to return to Lincoln at the first available opportunity. My tenancy agreement ends in July and unless something spectacular happens, I'll be moving back to "the Shire" in a few months, away from Radford, away from my psychotic flatmate and best of all, I'll be back in a city that I feel suited to. I'm a small fish from a small pond but living in a lake.
I may live in Nottingham, but Lincoln will always be my home.
LINCOLN 5 NOTTINGHAM 3
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18/12/2008 00:25
Been to Nottingham twice, it's a huge place, but i wouldn't like to live there, i'd rather live in the sewers of lincoln than Nottingham, lots of reasons why;
Coppers think there all 10 men, shove and push and are quite aggresive, saying this i've been to nottingham twice, both times where footy matches, suppose if it aint a match day there won't be any coppers but still.
@#$%&'s everywhere, go through a shopping centre with a lincoln shirt on with a few other mates, you get a few evils from normal people, probably wielding a weapon, and then you get the odd comments form tracky wearing @#$%&'s, 11 year olds asking for a fight when we are twice the size, and lets not forget the endles violance that happens in Nottingham, i remember you saying Nathan within a few days of moving there someone got shot. Oh and lets not forget what happened 2 years ago when people tryed leaving early.
Lincoln is full of @#$%&'s as well, just go to the city centre there's loads, but at least when you wear a city shirt in lincoln your not going to get a weapon pulled out on you.
I remember when we was getting an escort to the pub in nottingham, i stopped to tie my shoelace (it was actually to @#$%& them off, but they didn't know that)
i got shoved in the back several times and got threated to be arrested WTF? @#$%& up place.
Sorry Nathan i don't really want to slag your city off, but i've only seen the main parts, i bet the part where you live, and where no one sees is a nice place, or is it the st.giles ?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:12:18:01:08:03 by f1llo.
wouldn't suprise me
Did you go to accrington on friday or did you go to yarborough?
It's a great place to go for a night out or a day shopping etc. So much more to do there then Lincoln as you pointed out but forgot to mention you can see top level international cricket at the magnificent Trent Bridge as well as ice-hockey for those not just into football.
I've never had a problem with any of the locals, admittedly my stays have only been brief but I couldn't tell you who was from Lincoln and who was from Notts if I had to go just on friendliness/politeness.
The worst thing about Nottingham is the locals' daft accents!! And that they call you chief!
I can honestly say though in three years living in Nottingham I have only known one bad incident happening, when my housemate was mugged of his laptop, I really don't think crime in Nottingham is as bad as its reputation suggests. Although I do live in Lenton aka Studentville and have always felt safe walking about any time at night or in the day.
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