Norwich is a buzzing creative centre with a vibrant cultural life and this is reflected at its very best at the Norfolk and Norwich festival, which takes place over 11 days every May.

Established in 1772, this festival is one of the region’s leading cultural events. It features classical music, jazz, folk, theatre, comedy, street entertainment, poetry and educational projects.

Visit the festival and discover both local and international artists delivering an eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional elements.

The 2004 Festival included performances from some of the world’s most talented and renowned artists, including Astor Piazolla’s tango masterpiece Maria de Buenos Aires.

Among the Festival’s exhibition of local talent is the Burning Shed Showcase. Based in Norwich, Burning Shed is an artist led record label that produces unique, non-mainstream music. This showcase presents festival audiences the cream of their artist roster.

The more traditional elements of the festival include exhibitions, history talks and walks, comedy and literature.

By car from London take the M11/A11; just outside Norwich take the A47 (Southern Bypass) in the direction of Swaffham; the University is signposted off at the next exit. If you are driving from the North or the Midlands, you can use the A47 via King’s Lynn, or the new A14 as far as Newmarket and then take the A11 to Norwich. UEA is situated on the outskirts of Norwich, around two annd a half miles west of the city centre, just off the Earlham Road (B1108) which is one of the main roads out of the city.

By air Norwich Airport has regular flights to and from Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Manchester and Paris and international connections to 200 cities worldwide through regular direct flights to and from Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. The easiest way to reach UEA from the airport is by taxi.

By bus and coach National Express coaches run from all major cities in Great Britain to the Surrey Street Bus Station in the city centre. Buses 25, 26 and 27 run regularly from the bus station to the university campus.

By train Norwich is less than two hours from London by train and there is an InterCity link with the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland via Peterborough. Trains run from London Liverpool Street approximately every half hour. The easiest way to reach UEA from the station is by taxi, which costs about £6.50 and takes approximately 15 minutes. There are regular buses direct to the University from the station forecourt (number 25).

The main site for UEA’s School of Nursing and Midwifery is at Hellesdon Hospital, approximately three miles away from the University campus. The Norwich Research Park, which includes the John Innes Centre; the Sainsbury Laboratory; the Institute of Food Research; and the British Sugar Technical Centre, is situated off the Watton Road, adjacent to the UEA campus.

Norwich is considered to have a wealth of historical architecture. The medieval period is represented by the 11th-century Norwich Cathedral, 12th-century castle (now a museum) and a large number of parish churches. During the Middle Ages, 57 churches stood within the city wall; 31 still exist today.[1] Most of the medieval building is in the city centre. From the 18th century the pre-eminent local name is Thomas Ivory, who built the Assembly Rooms (1776), the Octagon Chapel (1756), St Helen’s House (1752) in the grounds of the Great Hospital, and innovative speculative housing in Surrey Street (c. 1761). Ivory should not be confused with the Irish architect of the same name and similar period.

The 19th century saw an explosion in Norwich’s size and much of its housing stock, as well as commercial building in the city centre, dates from this period. The local architect of the Victorian and Edwardian periods who has continued to command most critical respect was George Skipper (1856-1948). Examples of his work include the headquarters of Norwich Union on Surrey Street; the Art Nouveau Royal Arcade; and the Hotel de Paris in the nearby seaside town of Cromer. The neo-Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral on Earlham Road, begun in 1882, is by George Gilbert Scott Junior and his brother, John Oldrid Scott.

The city continued to grow through the 20th century and much housing, particularly in areas further out from the city centre, dates from that century. The first notable building post-Skipper was the city hall by CH James and SR Pierce, opened in 1938. Bombing during the Second World War, while resulting in relatively little loss of life, caused significant damage to housing stock in the city centre. Much of the replacement postwar stock was designed by the local authority architect, David Percival. However, the major postwar development in Norwich from an architectural point of view was the opening of the University of East Anglia in 1964. Originally designed by Denys Lasdun (his design was never completely executed), it has been added to over subsequent decades by major names such as Norman Foster and Rick Mather.

Satirical comedian Steve Coogan located his fictional, unbearably vain, cheesy broadcaster ‘Alan Partridge’ in Norfolk, specifically hosting the pre-breakfast show on the fictional independent station ‘Radio Norwich’. It exploited the county’s reputation as being somewhat detached from modern trends, past its prime, and rather peripheral to national life.

Other comic entertainers who have drawn comedy from that stereotype include Allan Smethurst ‘The Singing Postman’ and The Kipper Family lately represented by ’son’ Sid Kipper, though these are associated with Norfolk in general and not just the City. These have been joined by The Nimmo Twins

Independent radio stations are Radio Broadland (formerly Broadland 102) and Classic Gold Amber. BBC Radio Norfolk and the University of East Anglia’s Livewire 1350 all broadcast to the city.

The city’s economy, originally chiefly industrial with shoemaking a large sector, has changed throughout the eighties and nineties to a service-based economy. Norwich Union, an Aviva company, still dominates these, but has been joined by other insurance and financial services companies.

Norwich Market is an ancient market place, established by the Normans between 1071 and 1074, and is today the largest 6 days a week open air market in England.

New developments on the former Boulton and Paul site include the Riverside entertainment complex with nightclubs and other venues featuring the usual national leisure brands. Nearby, the football stadium is being upgraded with more residential property development alongside the river Wensum.

Castle Mall, a shopping mall designed by local practice Lambert, Scott and Innes and opened in 1993, presents an ingenious solution to the problem of sensitively creating new retail space in a historic city-centre environment - the building is largely buried underground and in the side of a hill.

The new Chapelfield shopping mall has been built on the site where the Caleys (later Rowntree Mackintosh and Nestle) chocolate factory once stood. This opened in late September 2005, and is described as ‘a major new shopping experience’, featuring a new three-floor flagship House of Fraser department store. The new shopping mall has largely been criticised as unnecessary and damaging to local businesses.

Archant, formerly known as Eastern Counties Newspapers (ECN) is a national publishing group that has grown out of the city’s local newspaper, the Norwich Evening News and the regional Eastern Daily Press (EDP).

Norwich has long been associated with the manufacture of mustard. Colman’s was founded in 1814 and continues to operate from its factory at Carrow.

Roman

The Romans had their regional capital at Venta Icenorum on the river to the south which is now at modern day Caistor St Edmund. No sign of Roman influence can be seen in Norwich.

Early English/Norman Conquest

Norwich was a construct of the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. The word Norvic appears on coins minted during the reign of King Athelstan (early 10th century AD). The ancient city was already a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia when Swein Forkbeard the Viking destroyed it in 1004 AD.

At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, and it continued to be a major centre for trade, especially wool. The River Wensum was a convenient exporting route to the sea.

The main area of the city south of the Wensum was destroyed by the construction of the Norman castle (see Norwich Castle) during the 1070s creation of a “New” or “French” borough.

In 1096 Bishop Losinga, then Bishop of Thetford, began construction of the cathedral, then moved his See there to what became the cathedral church for the Diocese of Norwich. The bishop of Norwich stills signs himself Norvic.

Middle ages

By the middle of the fourteenth century the City Walls, about two and a half miles (4 km) long had been completed. These, along with the river, enclosed a large area, larger than that of the City of London. In the early part of the fifteenth century, Julian of Norwich wrote her famous work.

In 1144 the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy (William of Norwich) was found dead with stab wounds. The story was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of martyr and crowds of pilgrims bringing wealth to the local church. On Feb 6, 1190, all the Jews of Norwich were massacred except for a few who found refuge in the castle.

The wealth generated by the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages resulted in the construction of many fine churches. Norwich still has one of the highest number of medieval churches in Western Europe. Norwich Market had trading links from Scandinavia to Spain. Around this time, the city was made a county corporate. (more…)

Norwich (pronounced variously “Norritch”, “Norridge”) is a city in East Anglia, in Eastern England, and the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk.
In effect the City expands a long way beyond its actual borough boundary, with large suburban areas on most sides, particularly Thorpe St.

Andrew on the eastern side. The Parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local government districts. The population for the Norwich Urban sub-area was 174,047 in 2001. It is the 27th largest settlement in England using this measure.

However, the population for the whole built-up area was 194,839 in 2001 (census figures), up 5.1% from the 1991 figure of 185,420. It is the 32nd-largest urban area in EnglandThere are many medieval churches as well as a cathedral founded in 1096 by the first bishop of Norwich. Norwich Castle, part of which dates from Norman times, was made (1894) into a museum for collections of natural history and local antiquities.

It also houses paintings of the 18th- and 19th-century Norwich school of artists. Other old buildings include St. Giles’s Hospital (13th cent.), Suckling House (14th cent.), Strangers Hall (15th cent.; now a museum), the guildhall (15th cent.), and St. Andrew’s Hall (15th cent.; formerly a Dominican church). The Maddermarket Theatre, a reconstruction of a Shakespearean theater, has a permanent amateur company. The Norwich grammar school dates from the 13th cent.

The city is also the cultural center of the county; triennial music festivals have been held there since 1824. It is seat of the Univ. of East Anglia (1963). The writer Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich.