After years of restoration, Norwich Castle Keep will fully reopen its doors from basement to battlements in the summer of 2025. Turning the clock back 900 years, this multi-million-pound project will take you back to the heyday of Norman England and let you experience Norwich Castle like never before.
So, whether you’re local to the City of Stories, a regular visitor, or have never visited, this once-in-a-lifetime reopening is not one to miss. In fact, as one of the most complete medieval cities in the country, it’s worth taking a few days to explore the rest of Norwich! Need some help with your plans? We’ve got you covered. Read on for our recommendations!
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery | Norwich Cathedral |Museum of Norwich | Julian of Norwich Church | Dragon Hall | Strangers’ Hall | Elm Hill | Walking Tours | Norwich’s Medieval Marks | The Maids Head Hotel | All Hallows Guesthouse
For all of the ways you can get to Norwich, be sure to check out our ‘Travel’ page for our pointers.
This is a history-steeped visit. There are few better choices than The Maids Head Hotel – which claims to be the oldest place of hospitality in the country, dating back to the middle of the 1090s when Norman Bishops established a guest house.
With guests over the centuries including Catherine of Aragon, Queen Elizabeth I, and Admiral Lord Nelson, you’ll be joining an exclusive club of names with a stay here! Plus, it’s across the street from Norwich Cathedral right in the centre of Norwich, so you’re mere minutes from the sights.
Alternatively, if you’re interested in a simpler stay, or you are travelling alone and want to experience some peace and quiet, themed around medieval Norwich then All Hallows Guesthouse is for you. Attached to Julian of Norwich Church rooms start at single occupancy from £45 a night including a sumptuous local, fresh breakfast (double rooms are available), bathrooms are shared, as is the spotless kitchen area, garden and lounge (open fire in colder months) and you are right in the city centre, an easy walk from Norwich station.
Julian of Norwich was the first woman to be published in the English language. She was a medieval English writer and mystic, who lived here at St Julian’s Church in the heart of Norwich 650 years ago.
In May 1373, a young woman received a series of 16 visions as she lay on her deathbed. After an unexpected recovery, she wrote down her account of these visions and in so doing became the first woman to write a book in English. Her name was Julian and today her book Revelations of Divine Love is known and respected around the world as a spiritual classic and masterpiece of English prose. Free tours are available to take of the church if you time it right!
The Maids Head Hotel is the perfect stay for a medieval trip to Norwich!
Of course, you’re here to see Norwich Castle’s reopening, so that’s the best place to visit first! But what can you expect to see from this newly restored Norman palace? The short answer? Plenty. The long answer:
There’ll be reinstated floors, audio-visual projections, character panels, VR, multisensory elements (like dressing up as a Norman king or queen, or experiencing the noises and smells from medieval life), numerous interactives, the British Museum’s first medieval gallery outside of London with over 1000 artefacts, including over 50 from the British Museum, and, finally, a new entrance to the museum with a light-filled atrium! It’s definitely worth getting excited for.
Then, a visit to Norwich isn’t complete without a visit to the iconic Norwich Cathedral, so it makes for a fantastic place to start your sightseeing outside of Norwich Castle. Norwich Cathedral is 900 years old and is the one of the Finest Romanesque cathedrals in Europe.
Norwich Cathedral is another unmissable icon of the city!
It’s completely free to visit and walk around these historic grounds, with free guided tours also available every hour, for an hour. Here, you can discover one thousand carved roof bosses in the Cathedral and cloisters, more than any other Christian church.
The Cathedral Close is also the largest to survive in England, plus the Cathedral itself has the second-tallest spire in the country and the largest monastic cloisters in England. It’s a wonderful place to visit and reflect, and, more often than not, there’s an event on! Check out their calendar and plan your visit on the Cathedral website.
Once you’re finished at Norwich Cathedral, you won’t be far from seeing another City of Stories icon – Elm Hill. In fact, it’s so iconic, Hollywood have even used this Norwich street as a film set time and time again across the decades! So, it really is a sight to see.
Take a walk down Norwich’s most complete medieval street and take in the sights as you travel back in time down this cobbled hill. Luckily for us there is no overtourism in Norwich so you may often find this charming location shared with only a handful of others. At this point it is worth mentioning at the top of the hill find Sir Peter Hungate Church one of Norwich’s 31 medieval churches. Open for free (limited days) it is worth popping in to discover its rich history.
Walk a bit further into The Norwich Lanes and find the Museum of Norwich in Bridewell Alley – here, find the full story of this maverick city and it’s people in imaginative ways through film, interactive displays, interpretations and original scenes, take a couple of hours to explore.
Elm Hill, Norwich
If you’re a lover of history, a tour with Paul Dickson should be on your to-do list. We’re not sure anyone knows more about Norwich than Paul – his tours are fascinating. We’d recommend booking his latest tour Medieval Norwich – from the Normans to the Tudors (written especially for the Castle Keep opening) as well as the ‘Shardlake’s Norwich’ tour, which was inspired by the book ‘Tombland’. This tour lasts for two hours, in which you’ll learn more about the locations featured in this famous novel and the story of Kett’s Rebellion, which took place in 1549.
Or take his ‘Great Market Tour’, which will teach you all you need to know about our 900-year-old Norwich Market. Find out more about the early days of the Market, when merchants would sell swords from the Rhinelands, furs from Russia, and walrus ivory from Scandinavia, as well as farm produce, pottery, and iron tools.
After your tour, be sure to stay for a delicious lunch and shop around – there’s some great stalls and it’s the largest permanent covered market in the UK, after all!
Learn something completely new about Norwich with Paul Dickson Walking Tours!
No medieval itinerary would be complete without a trip to Dragon Hall, (free, Sunday – Tuesday). Dragon Hall is now home to the National Centre for Writing. It’s an incredible medieval trading hall (c 1430) and unique in western Europe as the only surviving medieval trading hall built by an individual merchant, rather than a guild. When Robert Toppes (c 1405 – 1467) built this trading hall in around 1430, Norwich was one of the largest and richest cities in the country.
Free tours are available, so we recommend taking one to get the most out of it!
Finally, Strangers’ Hall museum is another medieval merchant’s house, beautifully preserved dating back to 1320. Representing the eras see wonderfully decorated rooms such as the medieval Great Hall, Georgian Dining Room, Undercroft, Victorian kitchen and nursery and Knot Garden. Strangers’ Hall is open Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, entry £7.10 for adults and £6.20 for children (value family tickets available).
And there you have it! Just a few of our top recommendations for a medieval visit to the City of Stories. There is plenty more to the city, from the fantastic cafés and restaurants to the amazing independent business community if you like a bit of shopping! For even more pointers on where to head during your time in Norwich – be sure to check out the rest of the VisitNorwich website.
