Katie Cooper is the Heritage Engagement Coordinator at the National Centre for Writing. She tells us about the opportunity to visit Dragon Hall on King Street, and explore the building and its fascinating history…
Dragon Hall is one of Norwich’s oldest buildings and is home to the National Centre for Writing. The 15th century merchant’s hall was built by Robert Toppes around 1427 – but based on buildings and settlements dating back more than 1,000 years. Since then, it has housed hundreds of families, a pub, a butcher’s, a baker’s and – thanks to generous funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund – is once again open to the public. Step into Dragon Hall to explore, enjoy trails, creative activities for adults and children, and discover centuries of stories that run through this magnificent building.
National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall Norwich (c) Luke Witcomb
Dragon Hall is free and open to explore, we’ve developed lots of exciting resources to help bring our history to life, drawing on Dragon Hall’s current incarnation as an International Literature house. Trails, exhibitions and interpretation panels help you to discover the stories which run through our building, inside and out.
Explore the garden with nature trails for adults and children, join the quest to find our missing dragons and journey through amazing spaces dating back centuries. You can see how Norwich residents have engaged creatively with the history of the hall and the surrounding area through creating their own stories, poems, songs, films and even a tour of King Street’s long-lost pubs.
Family days include extra creative activities, from drawing and crafting to writing workshops, but every day offers you the opportunity to come and seek inspiration, to write, think, or read in a vibrant creative space right in the centre of Norwich.
Dragon Hall is one of Norwich’s most beautiful hidden gems – be sure to pop in and explore!
My favourite part is almost certainly the hall itself – I really can’t get over the sheer genius of how Dragon Hall was built. The timbers were cut somewhere else in Norfolk and then transported by river to be re-assembled – like a huge medieval IKEA flatpack – on King Street. It’s staggering to think of the planning and design – how all of those individual pieces of wood, sawn from 500 Norfolk Oaks, would fit together and was all just in someone’s head until, one day, it was standing in central Norwich.
There is a really tiny window in Weston Hall which was used – we think – as a sort of look-out so that Robert Toppes (or more specifically, Robert Toppes’ servants) could see who was arriving or about to arrive and prepare for them. This would give him a bit of warning so that he could get out the cloth, spices or other items that he wanted to sell to them or thought they might be interested in; and perhaps some of their favourite drink, just to encourage them along with their purchase!
Presumably it would also mean that they could prepare for less favoured guests and customers, perhaps even pretending that Toppes wasn’t in! I do wonder what they go up to. Now, the window looks into the NCW staff room and it’s a pretty regular occurrence to look up and see the faces of school children watching you eat your lunch!
What other secrets of Dragon Hall will you discover?
Most people are staggered when they come in and realise that we have this beautiful glass gallery which looks out onto our garden. I think people don’t realise that we have quite a big garden space, which is very quiet and peaceful, and basically Norwich’s biggest conservatory, at the back. It’s a lovely place to sit, and we’ve even put some garden-themed poems and writing prompts in there in case inspiration strikes!
The National Centre for Writing has always celebrated writers from Norwich and Norwich’s stories but this is the first time we’ve really focussed on telling the story of Dragon Hall.
We’ve been able to draw on expertise from inside and outside the building to tell the stories of the people who lived here, from Agnes the dressmaker to Mr and Mrs Swatman the butchers, to Robert Toppes and even John Page, who built the first hall on this site in the 1300s. Being able to tell these stories and to work with local people on their own memoirs and tales of Norwich and Norfolk is really central to this project and it’s been such a pleasure.
The building is packed with creative activities and sources of inspiration, from poetry prompts to trails designed to get your creative juices flowing! We hope people will come to hear Dragon Hall’s story and will leave feeling very much part of that story themselves!
Dragon Hall is open to visitors Sunday-Wednesday, 10am-3pm
We are very lucky to have worked extensively with the brilliant Dragon Hall Heritage Volunteers group, who are real experts on the history of the building and have been researching it for decades. They do a regular monthly tour which gives a substantial and in-depth view of the buildings for 90-minutes – I would certainly advise anyone who was interested in Dragon Hall or Norwich’s history to sign up, but also to check out their website where they have copies of some of the archaeological reports and lots of resources around the history of the building.
Dragon Hall is free to visit, and is open to visitors Sunday-Wednesday, 10am-3pm. Find out more on the National Centre for Writing’s website. Details of events, special activities and tours can also be found on the What’s On section of the National Centre for Writing’s website.
