Nottingham has around 329,300 people. For two decades now it's built a reputation as "Nottingham Science City," a label earned by a genuinely strong life-sciences cluster around BioCity and Nottingham Science Park. Retail, gaming, creative digital, manufacturing: all still here too. Two universities, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, keep the graduates coming, and old names like Boots UK (founded here in 1849) now share the city with a growing wave of biotech and digital start-ups looking for office space to rent in Nottingham. The life-sciences story isn't finished. Planners just approved an expansion of Nottingham Science Park: new start-up office and lab space, R&D and conference facilities. A further biosciences centre is already in the pipeline near the University of Nottingham and Boots. Beyond the Science Park and its neighbour MediPark, there's the Island Quarter regeneration scheme south of the centre, the historic Lace Market (once the heart of the city's lace trade, now mostly creative offices and coworking desks ), and Castle Wharf. Transport holds up well for a city this size. Direct trains to London St Pancras in around an hour and three-quarters. East Midlands Airport, roughly 15 miles away. The M1 skirts the western edge, and the Nottingham Express Transit tram gets you between the centre and outlying business parks without a car.
