Trent & Peak Archaeology / The University of Nottingham 13 Newcastle Drive - cave system NG1   13 Newcastle Drive is one half of a pair of semi- detached Italianate merchants’ houses built in the Park in 1864. This was the first building on the street. Beneath no. 13 is a small but rather exquisite cave system - two narrow rock-cut chambers with alcoves, thralls and cupboards. The right- hand cave is clearly a wine cellar, with regular alcoves partitioned in a variety of ways for storage. The left-hand cave is a little more mysterious. It has a thrall or bench cut around two sides, and three very rustic alcoves with sloping bottoms on the other side. It seems most likely that these are ‘gentleman’s caves’, cut mostly for the enjoyment of the house’s first owner. We can imagine the owner taking his friends down to view his wine cellar after dinner, and then perhaps sitting in the ‘lounge cave’ enjoying a post-prandial cigar, telling tall tales by candlelight.

B 13 Newcastle Drive  NG1