Exeter Central

Nottingham

Exeter ( ) is a cathedral city in Devon, England, with a population of 129,800 (mid-2016 EST). The city is located on the River Exe approximately 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Plymouth and 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Bristol. It is the county town of Devon, and the base of Devon County Council. Also situated in Exeter are two campuses of the University of Exeter, Streatham Campus and St Luke's Campus. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal command of Vespasian. Exeter became a religious centre during the Middle Ages and into the Tudor times: Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century, became Anglican during the 16th-century English Reformation. During the late 19th century, Exeter became an affluent centre for the wool trade, although by the First World War the city was in decline. After the Second World War, much of the city centre was rebuilt and is now considered to be a centre for modern business and tourism in Devon and Cornwall. The administrative area of Exeter has the status of a non-metropolitan district under the administration of the County Council; a plan to grant the city unitary authority status was scrapped under the 2010 coalition government.

Nottingham ( NOT-ing-əm) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, 128 miles (206 km) north of London, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Birmingham and 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Manchester, in the East Midlands. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle (notably Raleigh bikes), and tobacco industries. It was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2011, visitors spent over £1.5 billion—the thirteenth-highest amount in England's 111 statistical territories.In 2017, Nottingham had an estimated population of 329,200. The population of the city proper, compared to its regional counterparts, has been attributed to its historical and tightly-drawn city boundaries. The wider conurbation, which includes many of the city's suburbs, has a population of 768,638. It is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and the second-largest in The Midlands. Its Functional Urban Area, also the largest in the East Midlands, has a population of 912,482. The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000. Its metropolitan economy is the seventh largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50.9bn (2014). The city was the first in the East Midlands to be ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.Nottingham has an award-winning public transport system, including the largest publicly owned bus network in England and is also served by Nottingham railway station and the modern Nottingham Express Transit tram system. To the west lies Derby, separated from it by the M1 motorway that cuts through.It is also a major sporting centre, and in October 2015, was named 'Home of English Sport'. The National Ice Centre, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre, and Trent Bridge international cricket ground are all based in or around the city, which is also the home of two professional football teams; the former world's oldest professional league club Notts County, and Nottingham Forest, famously two-time winners of the UEFA European Cup under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in 1979 and 1980. The city also has professional rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams, and the Aegon Nottingham Open, an international tennis tournament on the ATP and WTA tours. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UK's first City of Football.On 11 December 2015, Nottingham was named a "City of Literature" by UNESCO, joining Dublin, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Prague as one of only a handful in the world. The title reflects Nottingham's literary heritage, with Lord Byron, D. H. Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe having links to the city, as well as a contemporary literary community, a publishing industry and a poetry scene.The city is home to two universities - Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham and also hosts a campus of the University of Law.