Gotham, (pronounced goat-em meaning goat town) is a village in Nottinghamshire.
There are many legends associated with the village. King John and his entourage were notorious for taxing people and stealing produce; any road the king travelled along became the king’s highway and had to be maintained by the local people at their own expense. In those days madness was thought to be infectious so, when the king’s route to Nottingham castle should have passed through Gotham the men of the village feigned madness, so the king by passed Gotham. Hence the expression “There are more fools passing through Gotham than actually live there”.
Yes Batman and Robin are there.
From 1804-1806, the American author Washington Irving, undertook a tour of Europe and when staying at Newstead Abbey also in Nottinghamshire he would have heard the tales of Gotham. On his return to America in 1807 he wrote an article for a periodical in New York in which he compared the wealthy New Yorkers as being “mad like the Gothamites” The name stuck and central New York today is referred to as Gotham City.
In 1939 Bob Kane, a comic book artist and writer for DC Comics, created his Batman character and based him in Gotham City.
(Batman and Robin are used with the kind permission of DC Comics of America.
