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Old & New Norwich

Norwich, the Capital of Norfolk, was once second only to London in importance, growing out of several small Saxon settlements along the river Wensum.  Before the Norman Conquest of 1066, Norwich was one of the largest towns in England.  The conquerors built a castle and built a new market place which is still in use today.

Norwich is the City of Churches, it has over 57 Medieval Churches built within the City Walls and 31 still exist, which is more than London, Bristol and York combined!   Worth a visit is St Peter Mancroft and St Stephen’s in the city centre.  St Peter Mancroft is the largest Church in Norwich sometimes being mistaken for the Catherdral by visitors.  It stands at one side of the market place, with it's massive tower overlooking the city.  The 15th century colourful cast window, although badly damaged by the English civil war, is still one of the marvels of Norwich.

In contrast to these, the newest public building, The Forum, stands opposite those two churches.  The Forum is the landmark Millennium project for the East of England and is on the site of the former Central Library which was destroyed by fire in 1994.  This £65 million project was funded by a £31.5 million grant from the Millennium Commission and matching support from Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council and the business community.  This magnificent building houses ‘Origins’ a multi-million pound heritage visitor attraction, the finest regional public library in the country, the tourist information centre, and a variety of places to eat.  The building is free to enter and is open to the public between 7am and midnight.

Norwich, it is said, once had a pub for every day of the year and a church for every Sunday.  Nowadays there is still many great Public Houses to choose from. 

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Elm Hill is one of the oldest streets in Norwich and  a step back in time.  It was mainly rebuilt after the great fire of 1507 but still keeps its Tudor character to the present day.  The small narrow cobbled streets are overlooked by Tudor Houses some of which are now little shops.  Its a rather amazing fact that there are more Tudor Houses in Elm Hill than in the whole City of London

The Sainsbury Centre for visual arts at the university of East Anglia has re opened to the public after its major refurbishment and building project.  Designed by Foster & Partners, the Sainsbury Centre is one of around a hundred university museums in the UK which are regulary open to the public.  Sir Robert (1906-2000) and Lady Lisa Sainsbury donated their collection of world art to the University of East Anglia in 1973 and the Sainsbury Centre first opened its doors in 1978.  It was Sainsburys hope that students, academic staff and the general public would grow to appriciate the works on display in much the same way that they did, by being able to look frequently and closely at them without the distraction of to much museum-style text and labelling.