Norwich City Hall

Norwich City Hall was completed in 1938 in Art Deco style. It houses the city administration for the City of Norwich. It is a fine example of civic pride like other city halls in the UK - for instance Leeds and Manchester. Norwich is different, whilst those are Victorian, Norwich is Art Deco, completed just before the Second World War.

My father spent most of his working life there in the City Engineer's Department, which occupied this corner of the building under the Clock Tower. He was latterly in the office with the balcony that can be seen here.

Norwich City Hall was opened in 1938 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, with an immense crowd present to celebrate the occasion. It had been designed by architects Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce, after Robert Atkinson had prepared a layout for the whole Civic Centre site at the request of Norwich Corporation.

The architects designed an Art Deco public building of national significance. It was built to the highest standards, using the best materials and methods of its day. Even the bricks were specially made, each one being two inches longer than usual to better reflect the proportions of the finished building.

The materials used included Italian marble and English stone, Honduras mahogany and Australian walnut. Seating is upholstered in Moroccan leather, and rooms panelled in elm, oak, teak and birch.