Norwich Market

Whether you’re after handbags, children’s toys, flat caps, ladies’ coats or your everyday fruit and veg, it’s all here at Norwich market.

Lovingly filmed by Laurie Stanton on Kodachrome, the bright colours of the awnings and period clothes cheer up this dull, early spring day. A cheeky narrator confesses, “It reminds me of markets in Italy” as the camera pans past the costermonger’s pyramids of peaches. The florists get their moment too, with cascades of carnations and tulips on offer for Mothers’ Day.

Norwich market became established over 900 years ago, after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century, and replaced an even earlier market nearby. The 15th century Guildhall stands on the north side of the market square, and is the UK’s largest surviving medieval building outside London. The current City Hall which took over as the seat of local Government in 1938 stands majestically on the raised west side. At the same time, after the local authorities had gradually taken possession of the privately-owned stalls, the market was redesigned in a more organised grid of lanes which survive today following renovation in 2006. The market at Norwich is one of the largest in the UK.