English Tourism Week: The tiny Nottinghamshire village that inspired Batman's Gotham City

If you’re a fan of superhero books and films, then chances are you’ll be pretty familiar with Gotham City. 

The fictional city is, of course, best known for being the home of Batman, having been first referenced as such in 1940. 

You might also remember the television series called Gotham, comprising of five seasons between 2014 and 2019. 

Gotham has been associated with Batman for more than 80 years, but did you know that it was inspired by a small Nottinghamshire village? 

The village of Gotham (pronounced Goat-em) is located a few miles south of Nottingham and has around 1,600 residents. 

To understand the story of how the village came to inspire the famous Gotham City in Batman, we need to go back several centuries.

Washington Irving, a famous US writer from the 19th century, had heard a tale from over the Atlantic of The Merie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham.

The tale states that when King John, also known as the villain in the Robin Hood stories, travelled the country and passed through Gotham, the villagers would fake madness to deter him from passing through.

The book was published in 1565 and around 300 years later landed in the hands of Irving, who was keen on British literature. 

Irving, a New York native, drew similarities between the book’s wacky impression of Gotham and his home city. 

As such, repeatedly referred to Manhattan as Gotham in his writing. 

In the decades that followed, Gotham became a popular nickname for New York City and is still used to this day. 

Thanks to Irving’s influence in the USA in the 19th century, his nickname for New York City became well-known. 

When Batman was first introduced in 1939, his home city was originally referred to as New York.

However, this soon changed to Gotham City when writer Bill Finger was looking through a phone book and saw a business called Gotham Jewellers. 

With that, Batman’s home was changed to Gotham City and has remained so ever since. 

Each year Gotham (in Nottinghamshire) is visited by intrigued Batman fans, eager to visit the village themselves. 

Fans can complete their visit by posing for a photo next to a weather vane being ascended by Batman himself!