Norwich Market

Norwich Market stands in the heart of Norwich, a city on the River Wensum in the East of England. It is an outdoor market with about two hundred stalls spread across a long rectangular space. The market began in the late eleventh century to serve Norman settlers after the Conquest. It replaced an earlier market on the nearby Tombland plain. For over nine centuries it has occupied the same site. The market was once the main trading place for a large and prosperous city. The market was important enough for the monarchy to control it until the fourteenth century. In 1341 the city took over the market and its income. By then Norwich was one of England’s biggest cities, with a population of up to ten thousand. A large church, St Peter Mancroft, was built at the southern end in the fifteenth century. The Guildhall, the largest surviving medieval civic building outside London, was added at the northern end in the early fifteenth century. It served as the city’s government centre until 1938. Today the market is arranged in parallel rows of modern steel units. The old Guildhall still stands at the northern end. St Peter Mancroft remains at the southern end, where stallholders can still hold weddings. Gentleman’s Walk runs along the eastern side, lined with shops. The western side is now City Hall. The market continues to trade daily, offering local produce and goods in the same spot where Norwich’s trade began.