A320 Captain reported a nose gear uplock failure on gear retraction. The flight crew elected to make an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.

Narrative

During climbout after gear retraction; it sounded as if the nose gear was extending again; followed by nose gear retraction. This occurred several times and was accompanied by extremely loud mechanical noises which sounded like the nose gear in motion. We suspected that the uplock was not engaging the nose gear. We leveled off and took delay vectors in order to work the issue. First Officer flew the aircraft while I contacted Maintenance through Dispatch via ARINC and came to the conclusion that it was best to return to ZZZ. A return to ZZZ was worked out with ATC. Priority handling was declared by ZZZ Tower. An uneventful landing followed. After landing we had an indication that the left side forward emergency over wing exit had opened. FO (First Officer) told the passengers to remain seated and the aircraft was stopped in order to query the flight attendants on that situation. We were told that the indication was simply from the handle cover falling off. At this point we continued to the gate.