The city’s heart. Our 900-year-old castle watches over the colourful marketplace and bustling streets.
Above the city, Norwich Castle keeps watch. Beneath its shadow, our award-winning outdoor market tempts you with around-the-world street food, pop-up shops, and traditional stalls.
Once famous for its coffee houses and pubs, this district is Norwich’s beating heart. The Castle and Marketplace is one of the oldest parts of the city and makes the perfect place to begin a journey of historical discovery as well as experience an endless array of exciting events. You can wander Castle Quarter (home to high street heroes and thrilling entertainment), explore the beautifully Art-Nouveau Royal Arcade, or visit The Forum on Millennium Plain (also home to the city’s library). And on Mondays and Sundays, hear fourteen Whitechapel bells ring out from St Peter Mancroft’s Gothic tower.
The Forum sits on a pre-conquest settlement, inhabited by French settlers after the Norman invasion. Reflected in The Forum’s soaring glass is medieval St Peter Mancroft church. It’s said this is where Norwich’s history meets its future. The first recorded true peal of bells in the world was rung at St Peter Mancroft on 2nd May 1715. Nearby, Norwich Market has been in its current position for almost 950 years, while the street now called Timberhill was first called ‘Durnedale’ by the Anglo-Saxons, and later known as Swinemarket Hill. And, of course, Norwich Castle was founded for William the Conqueror after he invaded England in 1066.
You’ll also find our eleborate flint-knapped Guildhall in this area (you might notice its chequered effect). Built in 1407, this was the seat of Norwich’s government, and place for the administration of justice. A tour of the dungeons is not for the faint-hearted.
And presiding over it all? Norwich Castle. Currently undergoing a renovation which will see all 5 floors of the medieval Keep reinstated, this is one of the most important European castles still in existence today. Once a regal residence, then county gaol, and now a museum and art gallery, you’ll find centuries of stories within the walls of this magnificent building.
