Culture in Norwich: Norwich's Newest Tour
Culture in Norwich: Norwich’s Newest Tour
When visiting a city for the first time, the third time or even the hundredth time, it’s easy to discover new spots and spaces you might’ve missed before.
That’s what Norwich Free Walking Tours is about. In founder and local Tom Thornhill’s words, he’s “handing us a map of his city”. One that locals experience, packed with history, personal stories, go-to destinations and experiences that will make sure you really understand and appreciate our fine city, its people and its quirks.
Tom’s enthusiasm is contagious. He wants us to know the Norwich he knows. We caught up with him to find out more.
Image: Morrison Gooch
Norwich Free Walking Tours take place everyday, so no matter when you’re visiting, chances are you can join! Credit: Morrison Gooch
Why did you launch Norwich Free Walking Tours?
Slovenia did it for me whilst travelling. My partner and I were nine months into a round-the-world trip and we’d taken free walking tours in nearly every city we landed in. Most were fine, a few were forgettable, and one in Ljubljana changed everything for me.
Our guide there didn’t just walk us round the old town, she sat with us at the end and rewrote our itinerary for the rest of Slovenia! Where to eat, which bus to take, what to skip. We left feeling like a local had quietly handed us her map of her city.
That night, my partner asked the question this whole thing started with: ‘why have we never thought of doing one of these in Norwich, even as locals?’
I’d been giving informal tours to friends visiting from out of town for years, going back to my history degree at UEA. A few drinks deep, scribbling resolutions and I decided to bring the idea home.
When and who can join your tours?
The tour runs every day at 10.30am, meeting outside the Forum. Two hours, max fifteen people. Rain or shine. You pay what it was worth at the end, in any currency or by card.
It’s open to anyone. Kids, grandparents, dogs on leads, pushchairs and wheelchairs all welcome!
Who actually shows up has been the interesting part. Around 80% of the people on any given tour have done a free walking tour somewhere else in the world before. Berlin, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, even Ljubljana. They know the format and look it up the second they land in a new city.
About 20% are locals, students from UEA or NUA bringing parents into town for a weekend. And a small but growing handful are people who’ve just moved to Norwich and want to feel like they really know the place.
Norwich’s newest tour is like being shown around by a friend who wants to show you the best spots. Credit: Morrison Gooch
What makes Norwich Free Walking Tours stand out from others?
The simplest way I describe it is that it’s a casual and friendly walking visitor centre.
You get the story of Norwich, told as 1000 years of stories about the people who lived here, by someone who studied this at UEA and still lives in the city. But you also get the things a guidebook can’t give you. Where I’d actually go for coffee. The independent shop you’d walk past if you didn’t know it was there. What’s just opened. What’s worth your time and what isn’t. Where to come back to in the evening when the tour’s over.
Most of all, you get a bit of a friend in the city. Someone you can ask the dumb questions you wouldn’t ask anyone else, who’ll point you in the right direction, and who genuinely wants you to make the most of being here.
I’m new to Norwich. Tell me why your tour is ideal for a first-time visitor.
Norwich rewards a local. A lot of what makes this city special isn’t obvious on a first walk- like the Norman street plan that’s still there under your feet, the medieval churches that a first timer would walk past without realising what they’re looking at, the independent shop on the Lanes that doesn’t bother with a sign, the coffee place locals send each other to.
You can spend a weekend trying to map all that from a guidebook and still miss most of it. Or you can give me a couple of hours on day one and walk away with the city already in your head.
When I travel abroad, I always look for the local guide who can connect us to the city. There’s no reason that instinct should switch off the second you cross back into the UK. Especially when The Sunday Times has named Norwich the best place to live in the UK for 2026.
Tour guide Tom is ready to give you the most authentic experience of our city! Credit: Morrison Gooch
What’s your favourite part of the tour and why?
Talking to visitors. Honestly. The best bit of a free walking tour for the guide is that you sort of get to keep travelling without leaving home. Every group is a different five or 15 people from somewhere I haven’t been. I get to ask about their trip, what they’ve made of Norwich so far, what they’re heading to next. I get to see my own city through someone else’s first impression of it.
The second bit is what happens when locals join in. Norwich is small enough that we’ll regularly walk past a shopkeeper who waves, or a regular who chimes in with their version of a story. That’s the moment the tour stops being a lecture and starts being a conversation between people who happen to be in the same square at the same time. That’s the bit I do this job for.
How would you spend a day in the City of Stories?
These are my favourites- it’s what I would do on a normal Saturday with a friend who’s visiting. Your day might look different!
Coffee at Alchemista on Pottergate to start followed by Devecchio for a croissant. Then down to Norwich Cathedral for their own free guided tour, which is well worth the 60 minutes. If the weather’s playing nice, go up to the Plantation Garden mid-morning. It’s a hidden Victorian sunken garden behind The Cathedral of St John the Baptist that most visitors miss entirely. From there, wander through the Norwich Lanes for the shops. Independent everything.
Lunch from Norwich Market, which I eat up the steps near City Hall. My standbys are The Bodega for sandwiches and Lucy’s for the best fish and chips you’ll get outside of a chippy on the coast!
Afternoon: Norwich Castle, then grab a gelato from Café Gelato on London Street. By late afternoon you’ll be slowing down. Sit by the river with a pint at the Red Lion or the Ribs of Beef and watch the city wind down and the paddleboarders go past.
You’ll feel part of the tour with Norwich Free Walking Tours! Credit: Morrison Gooch
Do you have a favourite hidden gem?
The Mousehold Heath viewpoint. Locals who’ve lived here for decades know it, but it almost never makes a visitor’s list. You walk up Kett’s Hill and the whole city opens out below you. A thousand years of rooftops, church towers, Norwich Cathedral spire, the Castle on its mound. It’s where I took Louise on our third date!
The best version of it is a Sunday evening. Bring a beer, bring a pizza, and sit on the slope and watch the city go dark. That’s the bit of Norwich I’d send anyone to before they leave.
Do you have anything coming up we should look out for in the future?
Nothing flashy. I’m a one-man tour at the moment and the focus this summer is running the daily 10:30am tour to its best ability. Keep meeting visitors. Keep championing the local businesses that make Norwich what it is. Keep getting better at telling its stories. That’s the plan.
Join Tom and Norwich Free Walking Tours every day at 10.30am for a 2-hour tour. Pay what you think the tour was worth at the end. You can book your tour via the Norwich Free Walking Tours website!
