St Laurence's Church, Norwich

St Laurence’s Church stands on a sloping site in Norwich’s St Benedict’s Street, between Westwick Street and the main thoroughfare. Built between 1460 and 1472, it is a Grade I listed building of flint, stone and brick. The church has a nave and chancel in one unit, north and south aisles, two porches and a tall west tower. The tower rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses and a clock face on the south side. A corner turret was added during the 1893 restoration, and the parapet finishes with stepped battlements and corner pinnacles. The church is worth visiting for its Perpendicular windows, carved spandrels and medieval stained glass. Sarah Glover, daughter of curate Edward Glover, invented the Norwich sol-fa method here in the early 19th century. The church contains a 15th-century font, painted panels by Kingston Rudd, and a ring of six bells dating from 1356 to 1737. The east window’s late 19th-century glass and the lierne vault inside the north porch add to its interest. Inside, octagonal piers support a hammerbeam roof with angel corbels. The war memorial reredos of 1921 includes painted panels of angels and saints. A brass to Sarah Glover remains on the north aisle’s east wall, and fragments of medieval glass appear in the south aisle’s east window mosaic. The aisles’ clerestory windows and the tower’s bell openings complete the building’s striking profile against the Norwich skyline.