Norwich HEART

HEART: The Regenerator

• Independent charitable company set up 2004

• Objectives:

– To co-ordinate and champion heritage in Norwich and the East of England

– To act as a best practice model for heritage-led regeneration globally

About Norwich HEART

NorwichHistoric Landscape

‘Norwich has everything’NIKOLAUS PEVSNER 1962

Largest and most intact medieval street pattern in UK

‘I went through medieval streets…some Flemish in appearance…and at night beside the river I might have been in England or the Netherlands of the fourteenth century’ H.V.Morton 1927

•Pattern established by Danes, Saxons and Normans

•Only a few additional streets since the medieval period

More Pre-Reformation Churches than any other city in Northern Europe

‘I saw with pleasure and surprise, the beauteous tow’rs of Norwich…No situation can it surpass in any nation’ Alexander Geddes 1742

• Originally 57 medieval parish churches, now 32

• Dating from Saxon/Norman period

• Some of the finest medieval glass in the country

Largest set of medieval undercrofts & one of the largest groups of medieval merchant halls in UK

‘Sir Thomas Browne led me to see all the remarkable places, being one of the largest and certainly after London, one of the noblest cities of England’ John Evelyn 1671

• More than 80 undercrofts, some dating from the Norman period

• The unique Dragon Hall, 1450

• Surviving houses of the Boleyns, Howards, Pastons and Lord Chief Justice Coke

Norman market & a unique group of urban ‘plains’ & spaces

‘

• Market established 1075 and has occupied site continuously

• Other former markets provide important urban spaces

• ‘Plains’ introduced during massive Low Countries immigration

‘The grandest market place as well as the very best single market in all England’ James Blomefield 1744

• Finest secular building of its period in Europe

• UK’s finest Romanesque building

• England’s oldest old peoples’ home

• Only surviving medieval friary

• Largest & most elaborate guildhall

• Unique medieval merchant hall

• Unique Regency assembly house

• Noblest mill of the Industrial Revolution

• Most assured Edwardian office

• Largest provincial Catholic Cathedral

• Finest public building between the wars

• Award winning C21st structure

12 unique buildingsA collection of individually outstanding heritage buildings

spanning the last millennium, together representing a resource of universal importance

Governance of the Historic Urban Core

Norwich City Council Heritage Investment Strategy 2014

• Recognise the importance of historic assets to quality of life, business investment, tourism and the environment

• Find optimal viable use of assets whilst having due regards for conservation

• Secure external investment for city’s heritage assets

• Promote community participation and engagement

Partnership Organisations

• Norwich Historic Churches Trust

• Norfolk Museum Service (Norfolk County Council)

• Norwich Preservation Trust

• Norfolk and Norwich Heritage Trust

• Norwich Society

• Norwich HEART

• Visit Norwich

• Norwich Business Improvement District

What we do: Norwich Lanes

Local distinctiveness• In partnership with Norwich

City Council

• Build on distinctive character of city areas

• Develop economic and cultural activity

• Branding, heritage interpretation signs, plaques, street signs, paving, walking trail booklets

What we do: Norwich Lanes

Local distinctiveness• Build on distinctive character

of city areas

• Develop economic and cultural activity

• Branding, heritage interpretation signs, plaques, street signs, paving, walking trail booklets

What we do: Norwich Lanes

• A Spatial Strategy to set the context

• A Local Distinctiveness Pilot Study to capture the essence of the Lanes

• £500,000 raised by HEART to develop capital schemes

• Matched funding from other sources

• Integrated project combining heritage interpretation signs, plaques, art, street signs, direction signs, paving to deliver a ‘destination’

What we do

Norwich 12

• Developed city’s 12 most iconic heritage buildings into a collection of integrated heritage assets

• Events programme, marketing, education, new technology, conservation management plans

• £2M+ of direct expenditure levering a further £2M of matched funding & a multiplier value of £8M

What we do

• Coordination of the biggest free heritage event in the UK

• The Lanes local distinctiveness pilot generating £17M of value in the local economy for an investment of £0.5M & follow up schemes in Norwich, Thetford & Colchester

• A £1M project to integrate Norwich’s top 12 heritage sites developed into a €4.5M EU project

• A €0.7M EU digital archive film project

• A 200K SSRC/TSB joint project with the UEA to make archives accessible through new media

• An award winning education festival which saw 100,000 visitors in 2014

• 5 winners of regional/national publishing awards

• Rescue & transformation of Colman’s Mustard Shop & Museum

• 12 staff employed generating a turnover of nearly £1M annually

HEART: Coordinator and Champion

More Information

• MadeleineCoupe@heritagecity.org

• www.heritagecity.org

• www.norwich12.co.uk / www.shaping24.eu