Why now is the time to visit Norwich, England's greatest unsung city

Telegraph

2 days ago

What do you do with an empty castle keep? It is 900 years old and little more than a gloomy cavern. But it also dominates the middle of a city and is a major landmark of British history.
That was the problem addressed by Norwich Castle Museum when, just before the pandemic, it made a radical decision. The exterior of the keep had been remarkably well restored in the 19th-century and it had been designated as a museum a generation later.
But for 500 years after its royal patrons lost interest in the 14th century, the interior had been used as a prison. Except to the most expert archaeological eye, all sense of its past as a luxurious palace had been lost. The answer, the museum decided, was to reconstruct – at a final cost of some £27m – the inside of the building.
Now, after several delays, it has finally reopened. The contrast is remarkable. Instead of a hollow stone shell viewed from a walkway, you are now welcomed through a new '12th-century' door and under the splendid Norman arch of the original entrance.
You step directly onto a wooden floor which has been inserted at its original level – straight into a reconstruction of Henry I's royal apartments – the Great Hall, the bedchamber and the chapel.
Thrones, beds, chests and wall hangings which might have furnished it in the 1120s have been recreated (the bright colours can be disconcerting, but they are informed by historical research).
Meanwhile, at regular intervals, animated projections based on the Bayeux Tapestry bring the Norman invasion and conquest to life. They are really aimed at younger visitors, but will no doubt be secretly enjoyed by their parents too.
And, on the lower storeys, the museum's remarkable collection of medieval treasures and everyday objects – from ivory caskets to leather boots, augmented by more than 50 loans from the British Museum – give real, rather than reconstructed, context to the period.
The rest of the museum's collection – which range from artefacts connected with Boudicca and the Romans, to a strong collection of old master and Norwich School paintings and a teapot collection – remain on display on the complex of galleries on the castle mound outside the main keep.
Some may dismiss the reconstruction as 'faux'. I enjoyed it. But for me, as a champion of arguably one of Britain's most historic cities and certainly one of the most neglected by tourists, the really important thing about the project is the much deserved limelight it throws on Norwich itself.
Anything which distracts attention away from Alan Partridge and Delia Smith and reminds the world of the richest architectural history of all British medieval cities is an excellent thing.
That it should be the castle itself which is in the spotlight is even better. After all it was William the Conqueror's decision to transform Norwich from an Anglo-Saxon town into his regional capital, which was to be the foundation of its astonishing prosperity over the next few centuries.
The castle and cathedral were architectural statements made on a scale never seen before, and they became the twin poles which secured the city's economic and political dominance for centuries to come.
By the end of the medieval period, Norwich – grown wealthy on its trade in cloth, linens, wool, and dyes as well as timber, iron and luxury goods – was the richest city in the country after London. It had aggrandised its churches, its merchants lived in sumptuous town houses and its civic buildings were designed to express affluence and independence.
It's true that Hitler's Baedeker raids – and the planners in the 60s and 70s – rent some glaring scars across this ancient townscape.
But Norwich still has one of the richest architectural legacies of any medieval British city, rivalled only by York. Ignore Steve Coogan's lampoons. It is worth a weekend of any history-lover's time.
Exploring medieval Norwich
The Castle Museum
The newly presented museum opened on August 7, 2025. As well as the interior of the keep itself and additions to its collections loaned by the British Museum, one of the big highlights is the new roof terrace. This is open to the public for the first time and offers panoramic views over the city and especially towards the cathedral.
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery is open 10am-5pm daily; admission £17 (adult); lower prices for families and children depending on age and numbers.
The Cathedral and its close
One of the great Norman buildings of England, Norwich cathedral was founded in 1096 to serve the city – and also as a Benedictine priory – further aggrandised in the 15th century. It is a moot point which of the two buildings was intended to be the higher – the castle on its mount, representing the Crown and the cathedral with its spire, representing the Church.
Either way, the castle probably edged it until the original cathedral spire was completed in 1297. We don't know how high it was then, because it blew down in a storm in 1361-2; but the current spire, probably dating from 1485 is, at 96m, the second highest in England after Salisbury. Other highlights include the cloister and dozens of carved and painted bosses which decorate the vault of the nave.
For me though, it is not just Norwich's cathedral building which is such a powerful draw. The close which surrounds it – 44 acres, bound by high walls and buildings on three sides and the River Wensum on the other – is one of the most picturesque and alluring green spaces in the heart of any city, anywhere.
It is an idyllic retreat, a survival of the original monastic precinct, and the buildings which line its greens and lanes date from the 11th-20th century.
The halls
Three more impressive secular buildings survive as testament to Norwich's great mercantile past. Strangers Hall, named after immigrant Flemish weavers, dates to 1320 when it was a high-status merchant's house.
In subsequent centuries it was developed by a succession of Norwich mayors – a complex but fascinating architectural embodiment of the city's history. By contrast, the great warehouse on the upper floor of the half-timbered Dragon Hall is a remarkably preserved example of a 15th-century commercial premises.
It was built by one of the richest men in the city – the textile-trader Robert Toppes – to store his imports and exports. The Guildhall on one side of the market place, is a jewel box of dazzling flushwork – knapped flints shaped into squares and set in frames of stone. Finished in 1414, it was designed to showcase the city's wealth and prestige, and to celebrate the royal charter which had given Norwich the right to self-government ten years earlier.
The churches
Some 31 out of more than 60 medieval churches still survive in Norwich. Even the smallest – like tiny St Peter Hungate with its wonderful 15th-century stained glass – have their treasures. But two of the biggest stand out.
St Peter Mancroft dominates the market square and is unique (apart from the cathedral) in that it was entirely faced with stone – shipped in from the Midlands at huge expense in the 1420s.
The huge east window has one of the most complete schemes of medieval stained glass in the country (Norwich was one of the leading centres of glass painting).
The biggest and grandest church of all, however is the now deconsecrated St Andrews – part of a complex of buildings which made up the former Black Friars priory which remain one of the most complete surviving complexes of monastic architecture in Britain (currently closed for restoration, but scheduled to re-open this year).
On a smaller scale, St Helen's just across the road from the cathedral, was built as part of the city's great Great Hospital complex. The hospital was founded in 1249 and still offers sheltered accommodation to pensioners. The church tower and chancel are late 14th century, while the nave was aggrandised about a hundred years later. If you can get to see it, the little cloister behind the church is exquisite.
The streets
The most complete – and picturesque – of Norwich's surviving medieval streets, is the winding, cobbled lane which leads up Elm Hill. It is lined with half-timbered shops and houses, nearly all of which were built around 1510, soon after a catastrophic fire. The only survivor of the conflagration was The Britons Arms, built as an inn in 1347 and now a restaurant.
It leads up to Princes Street which offers another winding, picturesque route down to Tombland, the open area opposite the two main gates of the Cathedral Close. This was originally the Anglo-Saxon city's market place.
At the far end is the 800-year-old Maids Head Hotel, which claims to be the oldest in England. The network of narrow alleys, known as the Norwich Lanes, is also medieval in origin and is now home to some excellent independent shops and cafés.
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