Nottingham University: parking south of Tower

Info date: April 2013.

To approach the one Blue Badge (disabled) parking space south of Tower Building, you need to come onto campus by a particular turning, a little road called Coates Road.

Map Blue Badge space south of Tower, on OpenStreetMap.
Map-like photo Aerial photo shows Queen’s Medical Centre to the right of the dual carriage way, and University Park on the left. It includes the tall tower which is a good landmark for the ESLC building. The ESLC itself hadn’t yet been built when this photo was taken.

Approach along Clifton Boulevard (part of the A52) from the south-east. As you pass Queens’ Medical Centre on your right, you’ll see a sort of enclosed footbridge above the road, with the University of Nottingham logo on it. The left turn you want is the first one after that.

Photo: Ahead is the left hand side of a dual carriageway. In the foreground, an enclosed, green footbridge emerges from a building on the left and extends at first-floor height across the road. A sign on the footbridge says "The University of Nottingham", with the castle logo. Further ahead in the distance, a left turn can just be glimpsed. An arrow has been added to the photo, indicating "Left turn". On the right of the dual carriageway, a building can be seen - the Queen's Medical Centre. It has horizontal layers of tan brick or concrete, separated by about five layers of windows.

(This footbridge is visible on the aerial photograph linked above.)

As you turn off, straight away make a right turn in front of Coates Building.

Photo: A road sweeps round towards the left, in front of a building. The building is mainly of grey concrete with rows of windows; its lowest storey is of dark brick. In front of it is a green sign with its name, Coates Building (although this is too far away to be read in the photo, and instead the photo has a label added with the name). To the right of the building, a small side-road leads round towards the back of the building. Arrows added to the photo indicate travelling up this side-road.

(The photo doesn’t show it very well, but this is only a few yards from the turn-off you just made. At the right-hand edge of the photo, you can see a tiny bit of the main road continuing on ahead.)

Zooming in on the preceding view, note a misleading road sign, as if it were illegal to turn up this road!

Photo: On the left is a building, and in front of it, a green sign shows its name, Coates Building. Ahead, to the right of the building, is a small road. On the road, a road sign arrow indicates a right turn, towards and to the left of the camera. That is, cars coming out of the road are being told to turn to the photographer's left. The photo has a circle added around this arrow on the road.

But note also the lack of a No Entry sign; in fact, it’s allowed, and indeed is the only way in to this part of the car park.

(The odd-looking sign is meant to convey that you may not turn left out of that turning, to get back onto the busy main road; instead, coming out, you have to follow the one-way system and exit the campus another way.)

At the end of that little bit of road, turn left; you’re heading just left of the Tower, below another enclosed footbridge.

Photo: A small section of road leads to the right. The photo has an arrow added, pointing along the road. The road joins up with a car park to the left. A second arrow indicates crossing the car park to the left, towards an enclosed footbridge over the left-hand side of the car park. This footbridge connects two buildings. The right-hand building is visible in the photo and is a tall tower block.

Under the footbridge, keep going to the end; the Blue Badge space is on the left at the end.

Photo: In the foreground on the left, cars are parked in a row, arranged in parking spaces outlined in paint on the brick-paved ground. Ahead, there is room for a car to drive towards and under an enclosed footbridge which links two buildings. The left-hand building is about three storeys high, with horizontal stripes of rows of windows. The right-hand building is a tall tower block. Beyond the footbridge, another parked car can be seen in the far distance.

At the right hand edge of this next photo is a tiny corner of the Tower to your right. Up ahead is the back of the ESLC.

Photo: On the left is a row of cars, arranged in parking spaces outlined in paint on the brick-paved ground. Ahead is a brick surface for driving forward on. At the far end of the row of cars, on the left, is a space. The photo has the added words "Disabled parking" with an arrow to this space. On the right, extending ahead, a row of iron posts prevent cars from going too close to a building. The corner of the building can just be seen. Another building is ahead, behind some trees.

Photo: In the foreground on the left is a car in a parking space. Up ahead is another car in another parking space. In between these cars, and closer to the first car, yellow paint outlines a parking space with a wheelchair logo. Yellow-painted cross-hatchings show that no-one must park on the right hand side of this parking space. (There are no hatchings on the left-hand side of it.) At the end of the paved area is some grass with a few trees. Where the grass starts, there's a row of black-painted metal posts to deter drivers from driving onto the grass. Behind the trees is a grey, curved building. The photo labels this building "Back of ESLC".

From here, turn right and turn left to follow the path round to the front of the ESLC.

That view to your right…

Photo: On the right, the base of a building is labelled "Tower". On the ground near the camera are yellow hatchings, showing that the photographer was standing in the disabled parking space. Ahead is a brick roadway, with cars parked on either side. The roadway extends for the length of about five cars, before terminating near a building on the left, of brick and concrete. An arrow labelled "To ESLC" has been added to the photo. It points along the roadway, past the tower on the right, and then turns a corner left in front of the brick building.

… and when turning left at the end, you get the view in the next picture.

This pic shows roughly how far you still need to walk / wheel, to get to the front of the ESLC. From the parking space to the front door in total, it’s about 130m.

Photo: A path runs into the distance. The photo is labelled with an arrow to the left indicating "Blue Badge Space", although the parking space itself is off the side of the photo. To the left of the path is a grass lawn and a large grey building. To the right of the path is a brick and concrete building. At the far end of the grey building on the left, an arrow added to the photo indicates "ESLC entrance".

(Note that, oddly, that parking space doesn’t currently seem to have a wheelchair logo on the University’s own PDF map, though the road to it is shown.)

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