Norwich Market
Encyclopedia
Norwich Market is an outdoor market
consisting of around 200 stalls in central Norwich
, England. Founded in the latter part of the 11th century to supply Norman
merchants and settlers moving to the area following the Norman conquest of England
, it replaced an earlier market a short distance away. It has been in operation on the present site for over 900 years.
By the 14th century, Norwich was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in England, and Norwich Market was a major trading hub. Control of, and income from, the market was ceded by the monarchy to the city of Norwich in 1341, from which time it provided a significant source of income for the local council. Freed from royal control, the market was reorganised to benefit the city as much as possible. Norwich and the surrounding region were devastated by plague and famine in the latter half of the 14th century, with the population falling by over 50%. Following the plague years, Norwich came under the control of local merchants, and the economy was rebuilt. In the early 15th century, a Guildhall was built next to the market to serve as a centre for local government and law enforcement. The largest surviving mediaeval civic building in Britain outside London, it remained the seat of local government until 1938 and in use as a law court until 1985.
In the Georgian era
, Norwich became an increasingly popular destination with travellers, and developed into a fashionable shopping town. Buildings around the market were developed into luxury shops and coaching inn
s. The eastern side of the market was particularly fashionable, and became known as Gentleman's Walk. The area around the market had become very congested by the 19th century, but the council was unable to raise funds for improvement and few alterations were made. Because many of the market's stalls were privately owned, the council was unable to rearrange the market into a more rational layout.
Following the First World War, the local authority began to systematically buy up all the stalls on the market, eventually bringing the entire market into public ownership, and the market was radically redesigned in the 1930s. Stalls were arranged into parallel rows, and a new City Hall
was built along the entire western side of the marketplace to replace the by now inadequate Guildhall. This new arrangement survived with few significant changes for the rest of the 20th century. By the 1990s the market was becoming decrepit, and in 2003 proposals were made for another radical rebuilding of the area. These proposals were extremely controversial, and were abandoned in 2004 in favour of a scheme which retained the parallel rows of stalls, but replaced the old stalls with steel units of four stalls each. The rebuilt market was completed in early 2006, and is one of the largest markets in Britain.
of Norfolk
, Norwich
is a city on the River Wensum
in the East of England
. Its origins are unclear, but by the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939) the city was a major trading centre, and one of the most important boroughs in England. The Anglo-Saxon
settlement was centred around Tombland, a large open space at the point where the roads into Norwich converged. The plain of Tombland was the site of Norwich's market.
Following the Norman conquest of England
(1066–1071), Norwich was radically redesigned. Norwich Cathedral
was built immediately to the east of Tombland, and much of the old town to the southwest of Tombland was cleared for the motte
of Norwich Castle
. A new Norman town was built west of the Castle, in an area known as Mancroft. The new town at Mancroft included a market of its own to provide for the Norman settlers and merchants moving into the area, and possibly also to supply the castle's garrison. The exact date of the foundation of the market at Mancroft is not recorded, but it is known to have been operational by the time the Domesday Book
was compiled in 1086. Granting the right to trade in Norman England was a part of the Royal Prerogative
, and as with most fairs and markets of the period the market at Mancroft was operated under licence from the King. The King's Clerk had jurisdiction over all trade conducted at the market, and tolls and rents were collected on behalf of the King.
Almost no records survive of the Norman market in the 11th to 13th centuries. It is known that shortly after the market's establishment, a tollhouse
was built nearby, which served as a collection point for taxes on trade. Although the precise location of the tollhouse is not recorded, it was immediately north of the market, on part of the site now occupied by the Guildhall. At some point soon after its construction, the tollhouse also became the centre for the civil administration of the city. Although the Tombland market retained its charter to host an annual horse fair, over time the market at Mancroft supplanted that at Tombland as the principal market of the area. At the end of the 11th century the Tombland market was removed during construction work on Norwich Cathedral.
was at this time one of the most densely populated areas in England, producing large amounts of grain, sheep, cattle and poultry; as an inland port roughly at the centre of the region, much of this produce was traded in Norwich. The town, meanwhile, had grown into an industrial city based on textiles, leather and metalworking, as well as being the administrative centre of the region. By 1300 Norwich had a population of between 6,000–10,000, with a total of around 20,000 people living in the area. (One 19th century historian estimated Norwich's population pre-1349 at as high as 70,000.) It was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the country, and was considered the second city of England. Aside from occasional fair
s, the majority of all goods produced in and imported to the region passed through the market at Mancroft. While there is some evidence that the market operated daily for a period around 1300, it generally operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
marking the southern end. (St Peter Mancroft was built in 1430–55 incorporating an earlier church built in 1075, and was financed by the market's merchants. It retains its association with the market; all stallholders retain the right to hold their weddings in the church and to be buried in the churchyard.) The marketplace sloped downwards from west to east. A long straight passageway called the Nethererowe or Nether Row (later renamed Gentleman's Walk) marked the western boundary, and another passage called the Overerowe or Over Row (later renamed St Peter's Street, and since 1938 occupied by City Hall
) marked the eastern boundary.
The mediaeval market was divided into sections, each dealing with a particular trade. The stalls of the market were arranged in rows, and varied in width from 2 feet (61 cm) to 15 feet (4.6 m). Highly valuable, in the early years of the market they were generally owned by major institutions such as trade guilds and religious bodies, and generated a high income from rents. They also provided a steady income for the King, and later the city, from perpetual rents
. The marketplace was surrounded by retail buildings, construction of which began in about 1300. These were fixed, permanent structures, some of which had multiple storeys and cellars.
The northern section of the main market place, immediately south of the tollhouse, housed fishmonger
s, butcher
s, ironmongers and wool
sellers. This section of the market also housed the murage
loft after 1294, where tolls to fund the building of Norwich's city walls were collected. The southern section of the main market place, north of St Peter Mancroft, housed a bread market and a number of stalls associated with Norwich's significant cloth and leather industries. A broad space between the main marketplace and the Nethererowe was kept clear for the use of country smallholders, who would set up temporary booths and tents to sell their wares.
South of St Peter Mancroft was a second marketplace dealing in wheat, poultry, cattle and sheep. Pigs, horses, timber and dye were not traded in the main market, but had dedicated markets elsewhere in the city. (The modern Norwich place names of Timberhill, St John Maddermarket and Rampant Horse Street derive from their origins as the sites of the mediaeval timber, dye and horse markets respectively.)
visited Norwich for a jousting
tournament, coinciding with the completion of the city's defensive walls. Edward and his mother Isabella of France
were very impressed by the city, and as a token of appreciation for bearing the costs of the defensive fortifications Edward granted the franchise of the market to the city in perpetuity. The control by the King's Clerk over trade at the market was ended, and tolls and rents from the market from then on went directly to the city's bailiff
s (the rulers of the city).
With the powers of the King's Clerk abolished, the bailiffs of Norwich set about regulating the operation of the market for what they felt was the greatest benefit to the city. To encourage fair competition among the market's traders, it was forbidden to sell foodstuffs before the Cathedral bell had tolled for Lady Mass (6.00 am). The practice of forestalling (meeting merchants on their way to the market either to buy their goods for resale, or to prevent them from attending the market and thus make goods of the type they were selling scarce, and hence more expensive) was forbidden. Trading anywhere other than in the market was strongly discouraged, and the right to re-sell goods at a profit was restricted to Freemen of the city
. The prices of bread and beer were fixed, and a set of standardised weights and measures was introduced, against which measures used by merchants would regularly be checked. Shortly after the transfer of the market to the city a market cross
was erected near the centre of the main market (opposite the present day entrance to Davey Place), the design of which is not recorded.
In mid-1348 the outbreak of bubonic plague
known as the Great Mortality (later referred to as the Black Death), which had swept across Europe over the past year, reached England for the first time with an outbreak in the south coast port of Melcombe
. The plague spread gradually over the rest of the country with devastating effect, causing a mortality estimated at between 30%–45%. In late March 1349 the outbreak reached East Anglia, and for reasons which are not understood increased drastically in intensity. In 1349–50 alone more than half the population of East Anglia died, and in 1369 East Anglia—whose farming economy had collapsed in the wake of the plague—was struck by famine.
Although the market continued to operate, in the immediate aftermath of the plague it was at a much reduced level, and many stalls were left empty for some years after. The famine of 1369 overwhelmed Norwich's burial grounds, necessitating an expansion of St Peter Mancroft's churchyard
. The southernmost rows of stalls in the main marketplace, which had been occupied by draper
s and linen
merchants, were removed to clear space for an enlarged churchyard. By 1377 the population of Norwich had fallen from at least 20,000 before the outbreak to below 6,000.
Although social order was maintained throughout the plague years, the economy of the region was devastated. However, the surviving merchant community were very influential in the city, and in the wake of the catastrophe set about increasing the council's influence around the market, buying many of the surrounding shops. The council also bought a set of wharves along King Street near Dragon Hall
in 1397, and decreed that all goods entering Norwich by water be unloaded there. This ensured almost complete control of Norwich trade by the merchants who now dominated the council.
The market soon began to recover from the plague years to become a major trading hub again. Records of 1565 show 37 butchers' stalls alone in the market, and Norwich also became a major centre for the import of exotic foods. Sugar, figs and prunes were traded in the market in the 16th century, and it is recorded that 20,000 oranges and 1,000 lemons were provided for the 1581 St Bartholomew's Day fair.
In 1404 Norwich secured a royal charter
, granting it autonomy as "The County of the City of Norwich". The local council was restructured into a body headed by a Mayor
and administered by Sheriff
s and Aldermen; the Mayor also formally became Clerk of the Markets, but in practice the running of the markets was always delegated to deputies.
By this time, the tollhouse was proving inadequate as the seat of local government, and between 1407–13 it was demolished, along with an adjoining site which had housed a vegetable market, and replaced by a new Guildhall. In keeping with Norwich's status it was one of the largest civic buildings in England outside London, and housed all aspects of local government and justice for the new council. The Guildhall cost between £400–£500 to build. (As it was built primarily using pressed labour
, modern equivalents of the building costs are virtually meaningless. The annual income of the city council at the time the Guildhall was built was around £120.) The eastern face of the Guildhall was built in a distinctive black and white checked design, representing the exchequer
. The undercroft
of the tollhouse was retained for use as a dungeon
, while a new basement served as a lock-up
from the opening of the Guildhall until the 1980s.
The murage loft in the market, redundant since the completion of the city walls, took over the functions of the old tollhouse, and became the offices of the market supervisor and the collection office for market tolls and taxes.
Between 1501 and 1503 Mayor John Rightwise had the original market cross demolished, and replaced with an elaborate new cross. This was octagonal in shape, stood on a plinth 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and rose to a height of 60 to 70 ft (18.3 to 21.3 ). The central structure contained an oratory
, occupied by a priest.
Rightwise's new market cross only survived in its original form for a short time. In the English Reformation
of the 1530s the rood
on the pinnacle
was pulled down and the oratory became a storeroom. The octagonal plinth became a shopping arcade of small stalls. In 1549 a temporary gallows
was erected at the cross for the mass execution of 60 of the participants in Kett's Rebellion
, who had congregated in the marketplace during their brief capture of Norwich. In 1574 a local law was enacted demanding that all unemployed men were to assemble at the market cross each morning at 5.00 am along with the tools of their trade, and remain there for an hour in the hope that they would be offered work; a bonesetter
was hired to treat any men who claimed they were unfit for work through injury. The success of this scheme is not recorded.
By the 17th century the building was known as the Market House, and was used for the sale of grain and other goods sold by the bushel
; a set of approved measures were chained to the pillars for public use. The archaic title of "Keeper of the Cross" was bestowed on the man appointed to sweep the marketplace weekly.
The market cross also served as the focal point of Norfolk's parliamentary
elections. Candidates would bring large crowds of voters in by cart from the surrounding countryside, and ply them with large quantities of free alcohol to ensure their support. Candidates would pay for lodgings for the voters, but in closely fought elections more voters than usual would be shipped in and every inn
in the city would fill, forcing voters to sleep in and around the cross. Sir Thomas Browne
described the voters around the market cross as "like flocks of sheep" during the unusually close elections of 1678, at the height of the Exclusion Crisis. Following the counting of the vote, the winning candidate would be carried three times around the market, followed by torch-bearers and trumpeters. By this time the crowds would generally be extremely drunk on the liquor provided by the candidates, and elections would often degenerate into drunken revelry or fighting.
Although it was popular with travelling vendors, particularly of small fancy goods, the maintenance of the market cross was costly and unpopular with Norwich's citizens. In 1732 the cross was demolished, and the stone was sold for £125. In 2005 the base of the cross was rediscovered in excavations during renovation of the market area, but has since been re-covered. Its site is now outlined in red stones embedded in the market floor.
. Most public religious festivals were abandoned following the Reformation and the subsequent dissolution of many of the mediaeval guilds, and the leading event on Norwich's civic calendar became the annual inauguration of the mayor, which took place each May.
The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the civic authorities and by the surviving, and still powerful, Guild of St George, and combined elements of a public festival and a religious carnival. Four whifflers (city officials carrying swords) marched ahead of the procession to clear a path. Behind the whifflers, the incoming and outgoing mayors rode side-by-side, preceded by trumpeters and standard-bearers carrying the banners of England and St George, and followed by the city's Sheriffs and Aldermen in ceremonial gowns of violet and red, respectively. The procession was flanked by the city's waits
(musicians playing loud wind instruments, usually the shawm
), and accompanied by dick fools (clowns carrying wands and wearing red and yellow gowns adorned with bells and cats' tails) and a man costumed as a dragon.
As well as the mayoral inaugurations, the marketplace was also the setting for other public events, particularly mourning processions on the deaths of monarchs, coronation celebrations, royal birthdays and celebrations of military victories. Firework displays and bonfires would be held on these occasions, accompanied by the local militia firing volleys and the ringing of the bells of the surrounding churches, while local residents and shopkeepers would illuminate their windows with lit candles. Often, particularly in the 18th century, temporary triumphal arch
es would be erected beside the Guildhall. Free beer would traditionally be distributed at these events, which would on occasion degenerate into drunken disorder.
The market was also the location for public punishment of wrongdoers, and stocks
and a pillory
were set at a prominent position at the eastern end of the Guildhall. The stocks were used for the punishment of relatively minor offences such as breaching the regulations on the price of bread, public brawling or incivility to the Mayor; wrongdoers would on occasion also be paraded around the market wearing paper hats bearing details of their offence. The pillory was used for more serious offences such as sedition
. On at least two occasions in the late 16th century people convicted of sedition were nailed to the pillory by their ears; on completion of their time on the pillory their ears were cut off. Public whippings of criminals were also conducted in the marketplace. Although not all executions in the period are recorded, it is known that public hangings also took place in the market square and around the market cross.
By the 17th century, the market had also become the venue for many travelling entertainments. Exotic animals were displayed, including lions, tigers, camels and jackals, and displays by conjurers, puppeteers, singers, acrobats and other entertainers also regularly took place. Displays of human deformities were also popular; records exist from the 1670s and 1680s of the Mayor granting exhibition licences to, among others, "a monstrous man with 2 bodies brought from the Indies by Sir Thomas Grantham
", "a girl of sixteen with no bones", "a monstrous hayrie child", and "a monstrous man taken from amongst the hills of Corinthia
, he feeds on the roots of trees etc". Stages erected by charlatan
s selling medicines and demonstrating miracle cures were often erected near the Guildhall, prompting regular complaints from fishmongers that the crowds were blocking access to their stalls; on at least one occasion one of these travelling doctors had his licence withdrawn 'because of possible damage to the city's economy by the distraction of "idle minds" from their work'.
system made Norwich an increasingly popular destination with travellers. Norwich was recovering from the plague years and was a major city, with attractions and social events second only to London itself. The increasingly prosperous country landowners of Norfolk and Suffolk
began visiting Norwich more frequently and staying for longer when they did so.
By the end of the 17th century many of the strict regulations regarding trade in Norwich were lifted or relaxed, and Norwich became a fashionable shopping town. Shops catering for the growing wealthy classes, such as booksellers, vintners and gunsmiths, grew around the market plain, especially in the large buildings along the eastern side of the market, the Nethererowe, which became so popular with the gentry it became known as Gentleman's Walk. Gentleman's Walk acquired a number of luxury shops, including John Toll's drapers from which Elizabeth Gurney
(later Elizabeth Fry) watched the election of 1796
, the wine and spirit dealership of Thomas Bignold
who in company with other local shopkeepers founded a mutual association to provide fire insurance for the area's shops which became Norwich Union
, and Saunders Coffee House, patronised by the young Horatio
and William Nelson
.
By this time, a row of stalls bordering on St Peter Mancroft's churchyard had developed into a row of three and four storey houses running east to west, and a second row of buildings running north to south ran through the main market square. This row of houses cut off the main market from the eastern strip housing the butchers and fishmongers, known as the Upper Market, leaving only two narrow passageways as direct links between the two halves of the market square. (Although the buildings dividing the upper and lower markets were demolished in the 1930s, one of these connecting passages survives as Pudding Lane. The name "Pudding Lane" derives from "ped", an archaic word for the large baskets from which itinerant traders sold goods in the market.)
With increased numbers of people visiting Norwich, trade boomed in the inns around the marketplace. In addition to the existing taverns, at least four very large coaching inn
s opened along Gentleman's Walk. By the latter half of the 18th century stagecoaches were leaving one or other of the inns almost daily to London, and the inns also served as the hub of a network of frequent services throughout East Anglia.
Built around long narrow yards, as well as serving food and drink and providing lodgings, these coaching inns also served as temporary warehouses, auction rooms and gambling halls for travellers doing business in the market. The best known was the Angel, parts of which dated to the 15th century. As well as providing the other functions of the Norwich inns, its yard also served as a popular theatre and venue for other performers. (Despite its significance as a city, Norwich did not have a dedicated theatre until 1758.) However, in 1699 part of the building collapsed during a performance by Thomas Doggett
's troupe of players, killing a woman and injuring many of the audience. The reputation of the Angel was severely damaged, and although still used for small scale entertainments such as puppet shows, it was never again used for full scale theatrical performances.
Meanwhile, the livestock market south of St Peter Mancroft was becoming overwhelmingly crowded on market days. Eventually part of the eastern side of the castle mound was levelled, and in 1738 the livestock sales were moved to this new site. The old hay market remained on the old site for more than a century, until it was also moved to the new livestock market site in the early 19th century. The new livestock market was one of the last significant livestock markets in a British city centre, and developed a reputation as "the cruellest in the country".
s which were easily dislodged and trapped refuse. William Chase, editor of the first Norwich Directory, lobbied in the late 18th century for civic improvements and a rationalisation of the streets around the market. However, the economy of Norwich depended heavily on the textile industry, which had suffered badly from the loss of export markets during the French Wars, and funds for improvements were limited. By the beginning of the 19th century the only significant improvement had been the paving of Gentleman's Walk. In 1805 a number of Improvement Commissions were established to propose solutions to the problems facing the area, but little action was taken. Local councils had no powers to levy rates
to fund general civic improvements and as a consequence funds for improvement works had to be raised either through tolls and rents, via public appeals, or through long term borrowing, and the city was initially unable to raise sufficient funds.
In 1813 the yard of the King's Head coaching inn was widened to create Davey Place, a new street between the market and Back of the Inns, at that time a narrow passageway which ran parallel to Gentleman's Walk behind the coaching inns. (Although the inns no longer remain, Back of the Inns survives as a street name.) In 1820 the Gasolier, Norwich's first gas lamp, was installed in the market outside the entrance to Davey Place. Exchange Street, a new road running north from the northeast corner of the market, was completed in 1828 and a roadway was installed alongside the existing footpath. London Street, the main road connecting the market with the older areas of the city around Tombland and the Cathedral was widened in 1856. In 1860 the decrepit fish market adjacent to the Guildhall, by now over 700 years old, was replaced with a new neoclassical
building. In 1863 Gentleman's Walk was paved properly with York stone, and in 1874 the cobbles of the marketplace were replaced by timber blocks. Although by this time the market operated on all working days, Sunday trading laws meant it was closed on Sundays. The market space on Sundays was used for public assemblies and gatherings.
Meanwhile, Norwich railway station
had opened in 1844. Although many Norwich residents were reluctant to use the railway, and goods carriers initially found it more convenient to continue to collect goods from the coaching inns, as railway usage gradually increased the number of coaches and carts calling at the inns slowly dwindled, reducing congestion. In 1899 the Angel inn—renamed the Royal Hotel in 1840 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's wedding—finally closed, and was replaced with George Skipper
's Royal Arcade, a shopping centre in the Art Nouveau
style.
Although the civic authorities initially resisted installing tram
ways in the city centre owing to concerns about nuisance and disruption, they eventually relented; by the end of the 19th century Norwich had a total of 16 miles (25.7 km) of tram routes, including a route along Gentleman's Walk itself. While schemes to rationalise the layout of the market's stalls had been proposed since the 18th century, they had foundered on the fact that so many of the stalls were privately owned.
Meanwhile, the Guildhall, designed to serve the post-plague city with a population of around 6,000, was hopelessly inadequate as the administrative centre of a major modern city. As an interim solution the row of buildings dividing the upper and main markets had mostly been taken into public ownership and converted into civic offices, and in January 1914 the 1860 fish market had also been enlarged and converted into offices. The Liberal welfare reforms of the early 20th century and the Local Government Act 1929
had greatly increased the role of local government in public health and welfare, and by the 1930s Norwich council was suffering from a severe lack of office space.
The council opted for a radical redevelopment of the area around the upper market. The row of buildings from St Peter Mancroft to the Guildhall, which divided the upper and lower markets, were demolished, opening up the marketplace, as were the buildings along the western side of the market. The mixture of stalls and booths which occupied the market itself were all removed, and replaced by 205 stalls in uniform parallel rows, topped with multi-coloured sloping roofs (known locally as "tilts"). During the rebuilding of the market square, the existing stalls were relocated to a number of temporary locations in the area to allow them to continue trading, including the courtyard and rear of the City Hall development and surrounding streets. In 1938 the coverings of the stalls were given the multi-coloured stripes for which they became famous.
In 1932, despite concerns from some local residents and businesses about the huge expense at a time of recession, a new building was envisaged to replace the demolished civic buildings, spanning the entire length of the western edge of the now unified marketplace. From over 140 entries a design by Charles Holloway James
and Stephen Rowland Pierce
was selected. Heavily influenced by Scandinavian architecture, the design attracted negative criticism at the time, with John Piper
saying that "fog is its friend". Opened by King George VI
in 1938 as City Hall
, the building proved extremely successful, and was described by Nikolaus Pevsner
as "the foremost English public building between the Wars". Norwich's war memorial, designed by Edwin Lutyens
and opened in 1927 outside the Guildhall, was moved to a long narrow memorial garden on a raised terrace between City Hall and the enlarged market shortly after the opening of City Hall. The Guildhall remained in use as a law court until 1985, and its basement remained in use as cells until that time.
ing meant a virtual end to stall-holders selling their own produce, the market survived competitive pressures. Many stalls diversified into specialist foods, clothing and other goods and the high number of stalls allowed the market to sell a range of goods as great as that provided by the supermarkets.
These plans were extremely controversial. All three envisaged reducing the number of stalls from 205 to 140–160 in order to increase space, and all three involved splitting the market into isolated clusters of stalls, significantly altering its character and appearance. The Eastern Daily Press
organised a campaign against the perceived unattractiveness of the designs, the proposed reduction in the number of stalls which would mean stallholders losing their jobs and the remaining stallholders facing rent increases to cover the difference, and the change to the character of central Norwich that such a radical redesign of the market would entail. A petition of over 12,000 signatories rejecting all three proposed designs was gathered.
Following a public meeting on 26 January 2004 the council backed down, and Hereward Cooke, deputy leader of the council, said that "We are finding out what the stall-holders and people of Norwich want and we will try our best to fulfil their wishes". Architect Michael Innes proposed a new design, which was accepted by the council. The new design was put in place in 2005.
Innes's design retained the market's layout of parallel rows of stalls with striped coloured roofs. The new stalls were built as steel and aluminium prefabricated units consisting of four stalls each, each stall having a level floor accessed by a step. These "pods" were arranged in rows, with 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide walkways between the "pods". Transparent retractable canopies were installed above the aisles, which could be opened and closed centrally.
To allow the market to continue trading while the rebuilding took place, a set of temporary stalls were built in Gentleman's Walk and surrounding streets. A third of the market's stalls at a time traded from these temporary stalls while their stalls in the main market were replaced, a process taking four months for each third of the market. The rebuilding was officially completed on 25 March 2006. Although generally popular with traders and shoppers, the redesign was criticised by The Times
, who described it as "an anaemic shopping mall for health and safety inspectors: straight lines, wipe-clean boxy cubicles, all life and love drained out."
Meanwhile, in November 2004 engineers identified cracks in the terrace supporting the Memorial Gardens, and they were closed to the public as a potential hazard. Eventually in 2009 work began on renovating the gardens. Lutyens's memorial was dismantled and cleaned, and reassembled at a higher level to be visible from the street; it was also rotated 180° to face City Hall, rather than the market. The terrace was strengthened, and the gardens were landscaped around a new sculpture by Paul de Monchaux on the original site of the memorial.
Supermarkets continued to have an impact on shopping patterns. In 1979 fruit and vegetable stalls occupied 70 of the market's 205 stalls; by 1988 greengrocers occupied only 28 stalls, and by 2010 there were only seven remaining fruit and vegetable stalls on the market. A wide variety of other stalls have taken their place, and the market remains active. One of the largest markets in Britain, it is a major tourist attraction as well as remaining heavily used by local residents, and is a focal point of the city.
Market square
The market square is a feature of many European and colonial towns. It is an open area where market stalls are traditionally set out for trading, commonly on one particular day of the week known as market day....
consisting of around 200 stalls in central Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, England. Founded in the latter part of the 11th century to supply Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
merchants and settlers moving to the area following the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, it replaced an earlier market a short distance away. It has been in operation on the present site for over 900 years.
By the 14th century, Norwich was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in England, and Norwich Market was a major trading hub. Control of, and income from, the market was ceded by the monarchy to the city of Norwich in 1341, from which time it provided a significant source of income for the local council. Freed from royal control, the market was reorganised to benefit the city as much as possible. Norwich and the surrounding region were devastated by plague and famine in the latter half of the 14th century, with the population falling by over 50%. Following the plague years, Norwich came under the control of local merchants, and the economy was rebuilt. In the early 15th century, a Guildhall was built next to the market to serve as a centre for local government and law enforcement. The largest surviving mediaeval civic building in Britain outside London, it remained the seat of local government until 1938 and in use as a law court until 1985.
In the Georgian era
Georgian era
The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...
, Norwich became an increasingly popular destination with travellers, and developed into a fashionable shopping town. Buildings around the market were developed into luxury shops and coaching inn
Coaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
s. The eastern side of the market was particularly fashionable, and became known as Gentleman's Walk. The area around the market had become very congested by the 19th century, but the council was unable to raise funds for improvement and few alterations were made. Because many of the market's stalls were privately owned, the council was unable to rearrange the market into a more rational layout.
Following the First World War, the local authority began to systematically buy up all the stalls on the market, eventually bringing the entire market into public ownership, and the market was radically redesigned in the 1930s. Stalls were arranged into parallel rows, and a new City Hall
City Hall, Norwich
Norwich City Hall is an Art Deco building completed in 1938 which houses the city hall for the city of Norwich, East Anglia, in Eastern England. It is one of the Norwich 12, a collection of twelve heritage buildings in Norwich deemed of particular historical and cultural importance.Norwich City...
was built along the entire western side of the marketplace to replace the by now inadequate Guildhall. This new arrangement survived with few significant changes for the rest of the 20th century. By the 1990s the market was becoming decrepit, and in 2003 proposals were made for another radical rebuilding of the area. These proposals were extremely controversial, and were abandoned in 2004 in favour of a scheme which retained the parallel rows of stalls, but replaced the old stalls with steel units of four stalls each. The rebuilt market was completed in early 2006, and is one of the largest markets in Britain.
Foundation
The county townCounty town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...
of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
is a city on the River Wensum
River Wensum
The River Wensum is a chalk fed river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare despite being the larger of the two rivers. The complete river is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation ....
in the East of England
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...
. Its origins are unclear, but by the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939) the city was a major trading centre, and one of the most important boroughs in England. The Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
settlement was centred around Tombland, a large open space at the point where the roads into Norwich converged. The plain of Tombland was the site of Norwich's market.
Following the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
(1066–1071), Norwich was radically redesigned. Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....
was built immediately to the east of Tombland, and much of the old town to the southwest of Tombland was cleared for the motte
Motte
Motte may be:*Motte-and-bailey, a type of construction used in castles*Isaac Motte, an 18th century American statesman*La Motte , various places with this name-See also:* Mote * Mott...
of Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...
. A new Norman town was built west of the Castle, in an area known as Mancroft. The new town at Mancroft included a market of its own to provide for the Norman settlers and merchants moving into the area, and possibly also to supply the castle's garrison. The exact date of the foundation of the market at Mancroft is not recorded, but it is known to have been operational by the time the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
was compiled in 1086. Granting the right to trade in Norman England was a part of the Royal Prerogative
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and...
, and as with most fairs and markets of the period the market at Mancroft was operated under licence from the King. The King's Clerk had jurisdiction over all trade conducted at the market, and tolls and rents were collected on behalf of the King.
Almost no records survive of the Norman market in the 11th to 13th centuries. It is known that shortly after the market's establishment, a tollhouse
Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...
was built nearby, which served as a collection point for taxes on trade. Although the precise location of the tollhouse is not recorded, it was immediately north of the market, on part of the site now occupied by the Guildhall. At some point soon after its construction, the tollhouse also became the centre for the civil administration of the city. Although the Tombland market retained its charter to host an annual horse fair, over time the market at Mancroft supplanted that at Tombland as the principal market of the area. At the end of the 11th century the Tombland market was removed during construction work on Norwich Cathedral.
Norwich Market in the Middle Ages
By the start of the 14th century Norwich was one of Europe's major cities. East AngliaEast Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
was at this time one of the most densely populated areas in England, producing large amounts of grain, sheep, cattle and poultry; as an inland port roughly at the centre of the region, much of this produce was traded in Norwich. The town, meanwhile, had grown into an industrial city based on textiles, leather and metalworking, as well as being the administrative centre of the region. By 1300 Norwich had a population of between 6,000–10,000, with a total of around 20,000 people living in the area. (One 19th century historian estimated Norwich's population pre-1349 at as high as 70,000.) It was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the country, and was considered the second city of England. Aside from occasional fair
Fair
A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...
s, the majority of all goods produced in and imported to the region passed through the market at Mancroft. While there is some evidence that the market operated daily for a period around 1300, it generally operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Layout
The market had by this time taken on roughly the layout it retains today. It was a long rectangular open space aligned north–south, with the tollhouse (the Guildhall after 1413) marking the northern end and the very large church of St Peter MancroftSt Peter Mancroft
St Peter Mancroft is a parish church in the Church of England, in the centre of Norwich, Norfolk. It is the largest church in Norwich and was built between 1430 and 1455. It stands on a slightly elevated position, next to the market place...
marking the southern end. (St Peter Mancroft was built in 1430–55 incorporating an earlier church built in 1075, and was financed by the market's merchants. It retains its association with the market; all stallholders retain the right to hold their weddings in the church and to be buried in the churchyard.) The marketplace sloped downwards from west to east. A long straight passageway called the Nethererowe or Nether Row (later renamed Gentleman's Walk) marked the western boundary, and another passage called the Overerowe or Over Row (later renamed St Peter's Street, and since 1938 occupied by City Hall
City Hall, Norwich
Norwich City Hall is an Art Deco building completed in 1938 which houses the city hall for the city of Norwich, East Anglia, in Eastern England. It is one of the Norwich 12, a collection of twelve heritage buildings in Norwich deemed of particular historical and cultural importance.Norwich City...
) marked the eastern boundary.
The mediaeval market was divided into sections, each dealing with a particular trade. The stalls of the market were arranged in rows, and varied in width from 2 feet (61 cm) to 15 feet (4.6 m). Highly valuable, in the early years of the market they were generally owned by major institutions such as trade guilds and religious bodies, and generated a high income from rents. They also provided a steady income for the King, and later the city, from perpetual rents
Ground rent
Ground rent, sometimes known as a rentcharge, is a regular payment required under a lease from the owner of leasehold property, payable to the freeholder. A ground rent is created when a freehold piece of land or a building is sold on a long lease...
. The marketplace was surrounded by retail buildings, construction of which began in about 1300. These were fixed, permanent structures, some of which had multiple storeys and cellars.
The northern section of the main market place, immediately south of the tollhouse, housed fishmonger
Fishmonger
A fishmonger is someone who sells fish and seafood...
s, butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s, ironmongers and wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
sellers. This section of the market also housed the murage
Murage
Murage was a medieval toll for the building or repair of town walls in England and Wales.This was granted by the king by letters patent for a limited term, but the walls were frequently not completed within the term, so that the grant was periodically renewed....
loft after 1294, where tolls to fund the building of Norwich's city walls were collected. The southern section of the main market place, north of St Peter Mancroft, housed a bread market and a number of stalls associated with Norwich's significant cloth and leather industries. A broad space between the main marketplace and the Nethererowe was kept clear for the use of country smallholders, who would set up temporary booths and tents to sell their wares.
South of St Peter Mancroft was a second marketplace dealing in wheat, poultry, cattle and sheep. Pigs, horses, timber and dye were not traded in the main market, but had dedicated markets elsewhere in the city. (The modern Norwich place names of Timberhill, St John Maddermarket and Rampant Horse Street derive from their origins as the sites of the mediaeval timber, dye and horse markets respectively.)
Transfer to city control
In 1341 King Edward IIIEdward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
visited Norwich for a jousting
Jousting
Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two knights mounted on horses and using lances, often as part of a tournament.Jousting emerged in the High Middle Ages based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry. The first camels tournament was staged in 1066, but jousting itself did not...
tournament, coinciding with the completion of the city's defensive walls. Edward and his mother Isabella of France
Isabella of France
Isabella of France , sometimes described as the She-wolf of France, was Queen consort of England as the wife of Edward II of England. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre...
were very impressed by the city, and as a token of appreciation for bearing the costs of the defensive fortifications Edward granted the franchise of the market to the city in perpetuity. The control by the King's Clerk over trade at the market was ended, and tolls and rents from the market from then on went directly to the city's bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s (the rulers of the city).
With the powers of the King's Clerk abolished, the bailiffs of Norwich set about regulating the operation of the market for what they felt was the greatest benefit to the city. To encourage fair competition among the market's traders, it was forbidden to sell foodstuffs before the Cathedral bell had tolled for Lady Mass (6.00 am). The practice of forestalling (meeting merchants on their way to the market either to buy their goods for resale, or to prevent them from attending the market and thus make goods of the type they were selling scarce, and hence more expensive) was forbidden. Trading anywhere other than in the market was strongly discouraged, and the right to re-sell goods at a profit was restricted to Freemen of the city
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
. The prices of bread and beer were fixed, and a set of standardised weights and measures was introduced, against which measures used by merchants would regularly be checked. Shortly after the transfer of the market to the city a market cross
Market cross
A market cross is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most...
was erected near the centre of the main market (opposite the present day entrance to Davey Place), the design of which is not recorded.
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
known as the Great Mortality (later referred to as the Black Death), which had swept across Europe over the past year, reached England for the first time with an outbreak in the south coast port of Melcombe
Melcombe Regis
Melcombe Regis is an area of Weymouth in Dorset, England.Situated on the north shore of Weymouth Harbour and originally part of the waste of Radipole, it seems only to have developed as a significant settlement and seaport in the 13th century...
. The plague spread gradually over the rest of the country with devastating effect, causing a mortality estimated at between 30%–45%. In late March 1349 the outbreak reached East Anglia, and for reasons which are not understood increased drastically in intensity. In 1349–50 alone more than half the population of East Anglia died, and in 1369 East Anglia—whose farming economy had collapsed in the wake of the plague—was struck by famine.
Although the market continued to operate, in the immediate aftermath of the plague it was at a much reduced level, and many stalls were left empty for some years after. The famine of 1369 overwhelmed Norwich's burial grounds, necessitating an expansion of St Peter Mancroft's churchyard
Churchyard
A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
. The southernmost rows of stalls in the main marketplace, which had been occupied by draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
s and linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
merchants, were removed to clear space for an enlarged churchyard. By 1377 the population of Norwich had fallen from at least 20,000 before the outbreak to below 6,000.
Although social order was maintained throughout the plague years, the economy of the region was devastated. However, the surviving merchant community were very influential in the city, and in the wake of the catastrophe set about increasing the council's influence around the market, buying many of the surrounding shops. The council also bought a set of wharves along King Street near Dragon Hall
Dragon Hall, Norwich
Dragon Hall is a Grade 1 listed medieval merchant's trading hall located in King Street, Norwich, Norfolk close to the River Wensum. The Great Hall dates from around 1430 but some parts of the site, such as undercroft, are older. Archaeological research has shown evidence of 1,000 years of human...
in 1397, and decreed that all goods entering Norwich by water be unloaded there. This ensured almost complete control of Norwich trade by the merchants who now dominated the council.
The market soon began to recover from the plague years to become a major trading hub again. Records of 1565 show 37 butchers' stalls alone in the market, and Norwich also became a major centre for the import of exotic foods. Sugar, figs and prunes were traded in the market in the 16th century, and it is recorded that 20,000 oranges and 1,000 lemons were provided for the 1581 St Bartholomew's Day fair.
Guildhall and new market cross
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
, granting it autonomy as "The County of the City of Norwich". The local council was restructured into a body headed by a Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
and administered by Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
s and Aldermen; the Mayor also formally became Clerk of the Markets, but in practice the running of the markets was always delegated to deputies.
By this time, the tollhouse was proving inadequate as the seat of local government, and between 1407–13 it was demolished, along with an adjoining site which had housed a vegetable market, and replaced by a new Guildhall. In keeping with Norwich's status it was one of the largest civic buildings in England outside London, and housed all aspects of local government and justice for the new council. The Guildhall cost between £400–£500 to build. (As it was built primarily using pressed labour
Unfree labour
Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...
, modern equivalents of the building costs are virtually meaningless. The annual income of the city council at the time the Guildhall was built was around £120.) The eastern face of the Guildhall was built in a distinctive black and white checked design, representing the exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
. The undercroft
Undercroft
An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground area which is relatively open to the sides, but covered by the building above.- History :While some...
of the tollhouse was retained for use as a dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
, while a new basement served as a lock-up
Village lock-up
Village lock-ups are historic buildings that were used for the temporary detention of people in rural parts of England and Wales. They were often used for the confinement of drunks who were usually released the next day or to hold people being brought before the local magistrate. A typical village...
from the opening of the Guildhall until the 1980s.
The murage loft in the market, redundant since the completion of the city walls, took over the functions of the old tollhouse, and became the offices of the market supervisor and the collection office for market tolls and taxes.
Between 1501 and 1503 Mayor John Rightwise had the original market cross demolished, and replaced with an elaborate new cross. This was octagonal in shape, stood on a plinth 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and rose to a height of 60 to 70 ft (18.3 to 21.3 ). The central structure contained an oratory
Oratory (worship)
An oratory is a Christian room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.-Catholic church:In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass...
, occupied by a priest.
Rightwise's new market cross only survived in its original form for a short time. In the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
of the 1530s the rood
Rood
A rood is a cross or crucifix, especially a large one in a church; a large sculpture or sometimes painting of the crucifixion of Jesus.Rood is an archaic word for pole, from Old English rōd "pole", specifically "cross", from Proto-Germanic *rodo, cognate to Old Saxon rōda, Old High German ruoda...
on the pinnacle
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
was pulled down and the oratory became a storeroom. The octagonal plinth became a shopping arcade of small stalls. In 1549 a temporary gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
was erected at the cross for the mass execution of 60 of the participants in Kett's Rebellion
Kett's Rebellion
Kett's Rebellion was a revolt in Norfolk, England during the reign of Edward VI. The rebellion was in response to the enclosure of land. It began in July 1549 but was eventually crushed by forces loyal to the English crown....
, who had congregated in the marketplace during their brief capture of Norwich. In 1574 a local law was enacted demanding that all unemployed men were to assemble at the market cross each morning at 5.00 am along with the tools of their trade, and remain there for an hour in the hope that they would be offered work; a bonesetter
Bonesetter
A bonesetter is a practitioner of joint manipulation. Before the advent of chiropractors, osteopaths, and physical therapists, bonesetters were the main providers of this type of treatment. Bonesetters would also reduce joint dislocations and 're-set' bone fractures.The original spinal adjustment...
was hired to treat any men who claimed they were unfit for work through injury. The success of this scheme is not recorded.
By the 17th century the building was known as the Market House, and was used for the sale of grain and other goods sold by the bushel
Bushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
; a set of approved measures were chained to the pillars for public use. The archaic title of "Keeper of the Cross" was bestowed on the man appointed to sweep the marketplace weekly.
The market cross also served as the focal point of Norfolk's parliamentary
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
elections. Candidates would bring large crowds of voters in by cart from the surrounding countryside, and ply them with large quantities of free alcohol to ensure their support. Candidates would pay for lodgings for the voters, but in closely fought elections more voters than usual would be shipped in and every inn
INN
InterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
in the city would fill, forcing voters to sleep in and around the cross. Sir Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
described the voters around the market cross as "like flocks of sheep" during the unusually close elections of 1678, at the height of the Exclusion Crisis. Following the counting of the vote, the winning candidate would be carried three times around the market, followed by torch-bearers and trumpeters. By this time the crowds would generally be extremely drunk on the liquor provided by the candidates, and elections would often degenerate into drunken revelry or fighting.
Although it was popular with travelling vendors, particularly of small fancy goods, the maintenance of the market cross was costly and unpopular with Norwich's citizens. In 1732 the cross was demolished, and the stone was sold for £125. In 2005 the base of the cross was rediscovered in excavations during renovation of the market area, but has since been re-covered. Its site is now outlined in red stones embedded in the market floor.
Other uses of the market square in Tudor and Stuart England
With few fixed structures in the main marketplace, the plain traditionally served as a public open space on days when the market was not operational. Before the Reformation in the 1530s, its main use was as a venue for religious festivals, particularly the annual procession of the Craft Guilds at Corpus ChristiCorpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
. Most public religious festivals were abandoned following the Reformation and the subsequent dissolution of many of the mediaeval guilds, and the leading event on Norwich's civic calendar became the annual inauguration of the mayor, which took place each May.
The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the civic authorities and by the surviving, and still powerful, Guild of St George, and combined elements of a public festival and a religious carnival. Four whifflers (city officials carrying swords) marched ahead of the procession to clear a path. Behind the whifflers, the incoming and outgoing mayors rode side-by-side, preceded by trumpeters and standard-bearers carrying the banners of England and St George, and followed by the city's Sheriffs and Aldermen in ceremonial gowns of violet and red, respectively. The procession was flanked by the city's waits
Wait (musician)
Waits or Waites were British town pipers. From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of Waites...
(musicians playing loud wind instruments, usually the shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
), and accompanied by dick fools (clowns carrying wands and wearing red and yellow gowns adorned with bells and cats' tails) and a man costumed as a dragon.
As well as the mayoral inaugurations, the marketplace was also the setting for other public events, particularly mourning processions on the deaths of monarchs, coronation celebrations, royal birthdays and celebrations of military victories. Firework displays and bonfires would be held on these occasions, accompanied by the local militia firing volleys and the ringing of the bells of the surrounding churches, while local residents and shopkeepers would illuminate their windows with lit candles. Often, particularly in the 18th century, temporary triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
es would be erected beside the Guildhall. Free beer would traditionally be distributed at these events, which would on occasion degenerate into drunken disorder.
The market was also the location for public punishment of wrongdoers, and stocks
Stocks
Stocks are devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by...
and a pillory
Pillory
The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal...
were set at a prominent position at the eastern end of the Guildhall. The stocks were used for the punishment of relatively minor offences such as breaching the regulations on the price of bread, public brawling or incivility to the Mayor; wrongdoers would on occasion also be paraded around the market wearing paper hats bearing details of their offence. The pillory was used for more serious offences such as sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
. On at least two occasions in the late 16th century people convicted of sedition were nailed to the pillory by their ears; on completion of their time on the pillory their ears were cut off. Public whippings of criminals were also conducted in the marketplace. Although not all executions in the period are recorded, it is known that public hangings also took place in the market square and around the market cross.
By the 17th century, the market had also become the venue for many travelling entertainments. Exotic animals were displayed, including lions, tigers, camels and jackals, and displays by conjurers, puppeteers, singers, acrobats and other entertainers also regularly took place. Displays of human deformities were also popular; records exist from the 1670s and 1680s of the Mayor granting exhibition licences to, among others, "a monstrous man with 2 bodies brought from the Indies by Sir Thomas Grantham
Thomas Grantham
Sir Thomas Grantham was an English tobacco trader and naval officer, commander of the naval fleet of the British East India Company. In 1684 he was sent to Bombay by the King of England to put down an insurrection led by the Company, who had set up a parallel government and assumed wide authority...
", "a girl of sixteen with no bones", "a monstrous hayrie child", and "a monstrous man taken from amongst the hills of Corinthia
Corinthia
Corinthia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated around the city of Corinth, in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula.-Geography:...
, he feeds on the roots of trees etc". Stages erected by charlatan
Charlatan
A charlatan is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception....
s selling medicines and demonstrating miracle cures were often erected near the Guildhall, prompting regular complaints from fishmongers that the crowds were blocking access to their stalls; on at least one occasion one of these travelling doctors had his licence withdrawn 'because of possible damage to the city's economy by the distraction of "idle minds" from their work'.
Developments in the Georgian period
Improvements in Norfolk's road infrastructure and the development of the stagecoachStagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
system made Norwich an increasingly popular destination with travellers. Norwich was recovering from the plague years and was a major city, with attractions and social events second only to London itself. The increasingly prosperous country landowners of Norfolk and Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
began visiting Norwich more frequently and staying for longer when they did so.
By the end of the 17th century many of the strict regulations regarding trade in Norwich were lifted or relaxed, and Norwich became a fashionable shopping town. Shops catering for the growing wealthy classes, such as booksellers, vintners and gunsmiths, grew around the market plain, especially in the large buildings along the eastern side of the market, the Nethererowe, which became so popular with the gentry it became known as Gentleman's Walk. Gentleman's Walk acquired a number of luxury shops, including John Toll's drapers from which Elizabeth Gurney
Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Fry , née Gurney, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist...
(later Elizabeth Fry) watched the election of 1796
British general election, 1796
The British general election, 1796 returned members to serve in the 18th and last House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain to be held before the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801...
, the wine and spirit dealership of Thomas Bignold
Thomas Bignold
Thomas Bignold was the founder of Norwich Union, now known as Aviva plc, one of the United Kingdom's largest insurance businesses.-Career:...
who in company with other local shopkeepers founded a mutual association to provide fire insurance for the area's shops which became Norwich Union
Norwich Union
Norwich Union was the name given to insurance company Aviva's British arm before June 2009. It was originally established in 1797. It is the biggest life insurance provider in the United Kingdom, and has a strong position in motor insurance...
, and Saunders Coffee House, patronised by the young Horatio
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
and William Nelson
William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson
William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson, 2nd Duke of Bronté was the elder brother of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson....
.
By this time, a row of stalls bordering on St Peter Mancroft's churchyard had developed into a row of three and four storey houses running east to west, and a second row of buildings running north to south ran through the main market square. This row of houses cut off the main market from the eastern strip housing the butchers and fishmongers, known as the Upper Market, leaving only two narrow passageways as direct links between the two halves of the market square. (Although the buildings dividing the upper and lower markets were demolished in the 1930s, one of these connecting passages survives as Pudding Lane. The name "Pudding Lane" derives from "ped", an archaic word for the large baskets from which itinerant traders sold goods in the market.)
With increased numbers of people visiting Norwich, trade boomed in the inns around the marketplace. In addition to the existing taverns, at least four very large coaching inn
Coaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
s opened along Gentleman's Walk. By the latter half of the 18th century stagecoaches were leaving one or other of the inns almost daily to London, and the inns also served as the hub of a network of frequent services throughout East Anglia.
Built around long narrow yards, as well as serving food and drink and providing lodgings, these coaching inns also served as temporary warehouses, auction rooms and gambling halls for travellers doing business in the market. The best known was the Angel, parts of which dated to the 15th century. As well as providing the other functions of the Norwich inns, its yard also served as a popular theatre and venue for other performers. (Despite its significance as a city, Norwich did not have a dedicated theatre until 1758.) However, in 1699 part of the building collapsed during a performance by Thomas Doggett
Thomas Doggett
Thomas Doggett was an Irish actor.Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in Thomas D'Urfey's Love for Money. In this part, and as Solon in the same author's Marriage-Hater Matched, he became popular...
's troupe of players, killing a woman and injuring many of the audience. The reputation of the Angel was severely damaged, and although still used for small scale entertainments such as puppet shows, it was never again used for full scale theatrical performances.
Meanwhile, the livestock market south of St Peter Mancroft was becoming overwhelmingly crowded on market days. Eventually part of the eastern side of the castle mound was levelled, and in 1738 the livestock sales were moved to this new site. The old hay market remained on the old site for more than a century, until it was also moved to the new livestock market site in the early 19th century. The new livestock market was one of the last significant livestock markets in a British city centre, and developed a reputation as "the cruellest in the country".
19th century improvements
The relocation of the livestock market had done little to resolve the problems of congestion in and around the market. Many of the mediaeval access routes to the market were too narrow for wheeled transport, and the narrow alleys were also dark, dangerous and mostly unpaved. Although the market had been resurfaced during the 18th century, this had been with flint pebble cobblestoneCobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
s which were easily dislodged and trapped refuse. William Chase, editor of the first Norwich Directory, lobbied in the late 18th century for civic improvements and a rationalisation of the streets around the market. However, the economy of Norwich depended heavily on the textile industry, which had suffered badly from the loss of export markets during the French Wars, and funds for improvements were limited. By the beginning of the 19th century the only significant improvement had been the paving of Gentleman's Walk. In 1805 a number of Improvement Commissions were established to propose solutions to the problems facing the area, but little action was taken. Local councils had no powers to levy rates
Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government...
to fund general civic improvements and as a consequence funds for improvement works had to be raised either through tolls and rents, via public appeals, or through long term borrowing, and the city was initially unable to raise sufficient funds.
In 1813 the yard of the King's Head coaching inn was widened to create Davey Place, a new street between the market and Back of the Inns, at that time a narrow passageway which ran parallel to Gentleman's Walk behind the coaching inns. (Although the inns no longer remain, Back of the Inns survives as a street name.) In 1820 the Gasolier, Norwich's first gas lamp, was installed in the market outside the entrance to Davey Place. Exchange Street, a new road running north from the northeast corner of the market, was completed in 1828 and a roadway was installed alongside the existing footpath. London Street, the main road connecting the market with the older areas of the city around Tombland and the Cathedral was widened in 1856. In 1860 the decrepit fish market adjacent to the Guildhall, by now over 700 years old, was replaced with a new neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
building. In 1863 Gentleman's Walk was paved properly with York stone, and in 1874 the cobbles of the marketplace were replaced by timber blocks. Although by this time the market operated on all working days, Sunday trading laws meant it was closed on Sundays. The market space on Sundays was used for public assemblies and gatherings.
Meanwhile, Norwich railway station
Norwich railway station
Norwich is a railway station serving the city of Norwich in the English county of Norfolk. The station is the northern terminus of the Great Eastern Main Line from London Liverpool Street. It is also the terminus of railway lines from Ely, Sheringham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.-History:At one...
had opened in 1844. Although many Norwich residents were reluctant to use the railway, and goods carriers initially found it more convenient to continue to collect goods from the coaching inns, as railway usage gradually increased the number of coaches and carts calling at the inns slowly dwindled, reducing congestion. In 1899 the Angel inn—renamed the Royal Hotel in 1840 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's wedding—finally closed, and was replaced with George Skipper
George Skipper
George John Skipper was a leading Norwich based architect of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Writer and poet, John Betjeman gave this description of him "he is altogether remarkable and original. He is to Norwich rather what Gaudi was to Barcelona" Skipper was born in the Norfolk market...
's Royal Arcade, a shopping centre in the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style.
Although the civic authorities initially resisted installing tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
ways in the city centre owing to concerns about nuisance and disruption, they eventually relented; by the end of the 19th century Norwich had a total of 16 miles (25.7 km) of tram routes, including a route along Gentleman's Walk itself. While schemes to rationalise the layout of the market's stalls had been proposed since the 18th century, they had foundered on the fact that so many of the stalls were privately owned.
1930s redevelopment
In the wake of the First World War the council's Markets Committee began a programme of gradually buying back all the privately owned stalls, with the intention of encouraging demobilised servicemen to work on the market. Within a few years the market was entirely publicly owned, and the council took responsibility for the upkeep of the market. The city also bought out and closed many of the 30 or more inns in the area, transferring their licences to the growing suburbs.Meanwhile, the Guildhall, designed to serve the post-plague city with a population of around 6,000, was hopelessly inadequate as the administrative centre of a major modern city. As an interim solution the row of buildings dividing the upper and main markets had mostly been taken into public ownership and converted into civic offices, and in January 1914 the 1860 fish market had also been enlarged and converted into offices. The Liberal welfare reforms of the early 20th century and the Local Government Act 1929
Local Government Act 1929
The Local Government Act 1929 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales....
had greatly increased the role of local government in public health and welfare, and by the 1930s Norwich council was suffering from a severe lack of office space.
The council opted for a radical redevelopment of the area around the upper market. The row of buildings from St Peter Mancroft to the Guildhall, which divided the upper and lower markets, were demolished, opening up the marketplace, as were the buildings along the western side of the market. The mixture of stalls and booths which occupied the market itself were all removed, and replaced by 205 stalls in uniform parallel rows, topped with multi-coloured sloping roofs (known locally as "tilts"). During the rebuilding of the market square, the existing stalls were relocated to a number of temporary locations in the area to allow them to continue trading, including the courtyard and rear of the City Hall development and surrounding streets. In 1938 the coverings of the stalls were given the multi-coloured stripes for which they became famous.
In 1932, despite concerns from some local residents and businesses about the huge expense at a time of recession, a new building was envisaged to replace the demolished civic buildings, spanning the entire length of the western edge of the now unified marketplace. From over 140 entries a design by Charles Holloway James
Charles Holloway James
Charles Holloway James R.A., F.R.I.B.A., , architect, specialised in designs for homes and housing projects, but also completed large public works, particularly in collaboration with Stephen Rowland Pierce.James was born in 1893 at Gloucester...
and Stephen Rowland Pierce
Stephen Rowland Pierce
Stephen Rowland Pierce F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A. was an architect and town planning consultant. In partnership with Charles Holloway James he designed several large British public buildings, including Norwich City Hall....
was selected. Heavily influenced by Scandinavian architecture, the design attracted negative criticism at the time, with John Piper
John Piper (artist)
John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH was a 20th-century English painter and printmaker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames.-Life:...
saying that "fog is its friend". Opened by King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
in 1938 as City Hall
City Hall, Norwich
Norwich City Hall is an Art Deco building completed in 1938 which houses the city hall for the city of Norwich, East Anglia, in Eastern England. It is one of the Norwich 12, a collection of twelve heritage buildings in Norwich deemed of particular historical and cultural importance.Norwich City...
, the building proved extremely successful, and was described by Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as "the foremost English public building between the Wars". Norwich's war memorial, designed by Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
and opened in 1927 outside the Guildhall, was moved to a long narrow memorial garden on a raised terrace between City Hall and the enlarged market shortly after the opening of City Hall. The Guildhall remained in use as a law court until 1985, and its basement remained in use as cells until that time.
1976 renovation
Although superficially the market remained little changed in the decades following the 1930s redevelopment, by the 1960s it was falling into disrepair, and it no longer met modern hygiene regulations. A lack of funds delayed improvement works, and renovation works did not begin until February 1976. Hot and cold running water and refrigeration were provided to those stalls handling food, and many of the stalls were converted into lockable units. New electrical mains cables were installed throughout the market, the site was resurfaced, and the elegant but ageing 19th century lavatories were demolished. Aside from the demolition of the Victorian toilets, the only significant visible alteration was the addition of corrugated plastic covers over the walkways between the stalls. Although competition from supermarkets was by this time affecting shopping patterns, and the decline of market gardenMarket garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
ing meant a virtual end to stall-holders selling their own produce, the market survived competitive pressures. Many stalls diversified into specialist foods, clothing and other goods and the high number of stalls allowed the market to sell a range of goods as great as that provided by the supermarkets.
2005 rebuilding
While the 1976 renovations prolonged the life of the 1930s market, by the 1990s the market was once more becoming decrepit. The covers erected in 1976 over the walkways blocked sunlight, leaving much of the market dingy and poorly lit. The walkways themselves, already narrow, were becoming even more restricted as stalls erected external displays and additional weatherproofing. Removable shutters used to secure the stalls overnight were stacked against the sides of the stalls during trading hours, causing further obstruction, while on those stalls fitted with doors the doors opened outwards to maximise the limited space inside the units. In addition, the floors of stalls followed the slope of the hill, a gradient of about 1:12, causing health problems for those market workers who had to stand at this angle for prolonged periods during the day. Norwich City Council decided that these problems needed to be addressed, and in December 2003 invited the public to choose between three proposals for a rebuilt market.These plans were extremely controversial. All three envisaged reducing the number of stalls from 205 to 140–160 in order to increase space, and all three involved splitting the market into isolated clusters of stalls, significantly altering its character and appearance. The Eastern Daily Press
Eastern Daily Press
The Eastern Daily Press, commonly referred to as the EDP, is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, and northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK....
organised a campaign against the perceived unattractiveness of the designs, the proposed reduction in the number of stalls which would mean stallholders losing their jobs and the remaining stallholders facing rent increases to cover the difference, and the change to the character of central Norwich that such a radical redesign of the market would entail. A petition of over 12,000 signatories rejecting all three proposed designs was gathered.
Following a public meeting on 26 January 2004 the council backed down, and Hereward Cooke, deputy leader of the council, said that "We are finding out what the stall-holders and people of Norwich want and we will try our best to fulfil their wishes". Architect Michael Innes proposed a new design, which was accepted by the council. The new design was put in place in 2005.
Innes's design retained the market's layout of parallel rows of stalls with striped coloured roofs. The new stalls were built as steel and aluminium prefabricated units consisting of four stalls each, each stall having a level floor accessed by a step. These "pods" were arranged in rows, with 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide walkways between the "pods". Transparent retractable canopies were installed above the aisles, which could be opened and closed centrally.
To allow the market to continue trading while the rebuilding took place, a set of temporary stalls were built in Gentleman's Walk and surrounding streets. A third of the market's stalls at a time traded from these temporary stalls while their stalls in the main market were replaced, a process taking four months for each third of the market. The rebuilding was officially completed on 25 March 2006. Although generally popular with traders and shoppers, the redesign was criticised by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, who described it as "an anaemic shopping mall for health and safety inspectors: straight lines, wipe-clean boxy cubicles, all life and love drained out."
Meanwhile, in November 2004 engineers identified cracks in the terrace supporting the Memorial Gardens, and they were closed to the public as a potential hazard. Eventually in 2009 work began on renovating the gardens. Lutyens's memorial was dismantled and cleaned, and reassembled at a higher level to be visible from the street; it was also rotated 180° to face City Hall, rather than the market. The terrace was strengthened, and the gardens were landscaped around a new sculpture by Paul de Monchaux on the original site of the memorial.
Supermarkets continued to have an impact on shopping patterns. In 1979 fruit and vegetable stalls occupied 70 of the market's 205 stalls; by 1988 greengrocers occupied only 28 stalls, and by 2010 there were only seven remaining fruit and vegetable stalls on the market. A wide variety of other stalls have taken their place, and the market remains active. One of the largest markets in Britain, it is a major tourist attraction as well as remaining heavily used by local residents, and is a focal point of the city.
External links
- Official website
- BBC webcam overlooking Norwich Market