Norwich

Understand

thumb|300px|Norwich Anglican Cathedral Norwich is by no means the United Kingdom's biggest city - indeed, with a population of about 140,000, it ranks as Britain's 41st most populous city, far from a major metropolitan centre. It's frequently, and unfairly, maligned in British culture as an inbred backwater - partly due to the typical (and grossly inaccurate) Norfolk stereotype more generally, but mainly not helped by most peoples' exposure to it being solely through the comedy character Alan Partridge and his various shows portraying it as exactly that. But in reality, Norwich is nothing like what these stereotypes might suggest. Its constantly changing student population, as well as a strong professional base, a blooming retail sector, a vibrant cultural scene and a strong tradition of political radicalism and liberalism all combine to make it a liberal, cosmopolitan place to live, work in and visit.

In the 1960s, Norwich became a university city with the foundation of the University of East Anglia (UEA). In 2013, Norwich's second university, Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) was established from the much older College of Art and Design. The universities, UEA in particular, have provided an influx of new and young residents to the area, many of whom fell in love with the city and chose to stay, as do many to this day. This constant supply of "new blood" has helped the city maintain and nurture its vibrant, young and open nature.

To add to that, Norwich is a historicall…

Get around

Norwich city centre is fairly compact and can be explored easily on foot; in many cases this will be the quickest and easiest way to reach your destination. It is also a cycle-friendly city, with many major streets having separate bike lanes and also several cycle tracks along the two rivers. That said, whilst on paper there appears a significant network of cycle lanes, in practice many of these are just where somebody with a pot of white paint has marked a narrow strip in the gutter for bicycles or painted an arrow suggesting cyclists share a pavement with pedestrians which just wide enough for mother and baby buggy. Don't let that discourage you from cycling around, just be aware of the limitations of the mapped "cycle network".

City buses are mostly operated by First Nortfolk and Suffolk and are handy for reaching the train station and Riverside entertainment district, the university and the airport; however point to point journeys may be more difficult and involve changing in the city centre, where bus stops to and from different destinations are spread out along a mile of crowded pavement. The buses are in theory segregated into coloured "lines" (e.g. "Pink Line", "Blue Line"), but in truth nobody will ever refer to these and the actual colour of a bus may have no bearing on its actual route; you should instead take note of the route number as displayed on its front. Tickets can be bought from the driver using contactless payment (Visa and Mastercard only, American Expr…

See

thumb|300px|Norwich Castle thumb|300px|Cow Tower thumb|300px|Norwich RC Cathedral Many fine medieval churches including St John Maddermarket, St Peter Mancroft by the Forum, St Stephens, all of which are usually open

Do

Norfolk and Norwich Festival is held in May in the city and beyond. Football: Norwich City FC were relegated in 2022 and now play football in the Championship, the game's second tier. "The Canaries" are a yo-yo team between the two upper tiers; their home ground (capacity 27,000) is Carrow Road NR1 1JE, half a mile south of the railway station. Cricket: Norfolk CCC play in the National Counties Cricket Championship, the tier formerly known as "Minor Counties" below the first class competitions. They usually play at Manor Park Horsford at the north edge of the city. Marriott's Way is a hiking and cycling path along a former railway trackbed. It heads upriver from town through Drayton, Attlebridge, Lenwade, Whitwell and Themelthorpe, then turns east to Aylsham.

Buy

thumb|right|Norwich market, in the background the 15th century Guildhall thumb|right|Elm Hill Norwich punches above its weight in retail terms and is regarded as one of Britain's major regional shopping centres. The Castle Quarter (formerly Castle Mall) shopping mall is joined by a major city-centre development, the Chantry Place mall (formerly Intu Chapelfield), on the site of a former chocolate factory. It has a big "Cigar entwined in a wire frame" sculpture on top to serve as a visible landmark.

Other than the shopping centres there is a big John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and local department store Jarrolds. This particular store is unusual in that it is still locally owned and gives 25% of its profits to the John Jarrold Trust, a charity that grant aids worthy causes. London Street is nearby and was England's first pedestrianised street. A wide range of independent specialist stores is concentrated around the Upper Goat Lane/Pottergate/St. Benedict's area of the city centre, known as the Norwich Lanes.

One street not to miss is Elm Hill. It's a medieval cobbled street near Norwich Cathedral that backs onto the River Wensum and is renowned for its antiques and tea shops. These include the , an excellent coffee house and restaurant in a delightful thatched building dating from 1420.

That just leaves the market, which is the largest permanent outdoor market in Europe, and one of the finest city markets in the UK. Its roofs are a riot of primary colours. The market is home …

Eat

Norwich has a vast array of small and independent restaurants catering to most tastes and budgets, as well as hosting most of the major chains. Many of the best restaurants can be found clustered around the Norwich Lanes, the loosely-defined area roughly bounded by and including St Benedicts Street, as well as the equally olden Triangle area between Colman Road, Newmarket Road and Earlham Road.

Drink

Norwich was once famous for having a church for every week in the year, and a pub for every day of the year. It had the highest number of pubs per square mile in the UK.

For real ale enthusiasts, Norwich is home to the multi award-winning Fat Cat, a real ale paradise serving over 25 ales, and the only pub in the UK to twice win the prestigious CAMRA National Pub of the Year. Other popular real ale pubs in the city centre include The Coach & Horses and the historic Adam & Eve. North of the city are the King's Head in Magdalen Street, the Shed (with Fat Cat Brewery), and the Duke of Wellington, all real ale pubs with an extensive selection of ales and some cider.

There is a major beer festival, organised by the local branch of CAMRA, held every year in St Andrews Hall. Beware that it gets extremely crowded though.

The local real ale of choice is Woodforde's Wherry. Woodfordes also brew Nelson's Revenge among others. Also popular in pubs around the area are the two popular Adnams ales, The Bitter and Broadside, brewed in the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold. Coach & Horses hosts Chalk Hill Brewery. It's at 82 Thorpe Rd near the railway station, open Su-Th 11AM-11PM, F Sa 11AM-midnight.

Sleep

There are four hotel chains operating in Norwich: Premier Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn and Mercure. Out of the city there are some larger golf-type hotels. Dunston Hall (owned by the De Vere group) just south of the city, and (run by the Britannia group) just north of the city. Both are OK and generally get 4-star ratings but they are hardly hotels you would choose to go on holiday to. They have lots of facilities (spas, gold pools, etc.) and are the best place to stay around Norwich if you don’t need to be in the city centre. You can also camp at the local campsite, which is roughly on the outskirts of the city centre:

Stay safe

Although Norwich is generally a safe city to visit, caution should be taken when wandering the city centre at night. Use common sense and avoid back streets; staying in groups is always a good idea. Areas to avoid during the night would be Anglia Square, Eaton Park and Cathedral Close, although there is not much to do there at night so reasons to be there are limited anyway.

Prince of Wales Road is the city's main nightlife area, and gets extremely busy and filled with drunk people on a Friday or Saturday night. The immediately adjacent Tombland is another nightlife hotspot that may be best avoided on weekend nights if you wish to avoid drunk people. Random assaults in these areas by people who are drunk beyond all reason are not unheard of.

An "SOS Bus" operates on a charitable basis from a literal yellow bus at the bottom of Prince of Wales Road (across the bridge from the railway station) as a support point late on Friday and Saturday nights. It is primarily intended for those who are out clubbing, but if you are just stuck and need help (or just somewhere safe to be) it may be of use.

The local police force are Norfolk Constabulary, with the central police station being on Bethel Street, adjacent to the large City Hall building (with a tall clock tower that acts as a local landmark) opposite the market. As with all of the UK, if you need emergency police or medical assistance, call 999. You can also reach the police on a non-emergency basis on 101, although expect to w…

Respect

People from Norwich are very aware of the (again, inaccurate) stereotypes of the city and its surrounds as some sort of barely-industrialised backwater or a glorified livestock market, and attitudes to these will vary from self-deprecating humour (as in the quote above) to defensive anger. It's best just not to make light of these. Jokes about inbreeding or the "Normal For Norfolk" stereotype are, it goes without saying, going to be extremely unappreciated by everyone.

In the same vein, references to the Norwich-dwelling comedy character Alan Partridge and quotes from his programmes (especially anything about the "pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre") are played out at this point and will just get you eye rolls at best - not least since these references are now literally decades old.