Street is restored to its former glory

March 8, 2004

KING STREET
(Prince of Wales Road to Bracondale)

THEY say that on a dark night if you listen carefully you can still hear the sound of Roman legionaries tramping their way down this king of streets — making for Caistor St Edmund in time for tea.

King Street about half a century ago.

This is the longest and one of the oldest streets in Norwich with an extraordinary history and now, at long last, a great future.

For decades this once-proud street was left to rot and decay but now the people are returning as new homes and businesses spring up.

King Street was once Conisford — the street leading to the King’s Ford over the Wensum, though no one now knows where the King’s ford was.

It started life more than 1,500 years ago as a footpath between a cliff and a river, leading to the little Anglo-Saxon settlements which are believed to have been the beginning of Norwich.

What history this street has — thanks to the River Wensum whose water was the lifeblood of Norwich.

As the city took shape King Street took centre stage.

It was lined with the mansions and warehouses of the merchants. Some architectural gems remain.

The Normans traded with Rouen bringing stone from Caen for the cathedral and castle and importing wines and fabrics from the Rhineland and the Netherlands. Their properties included the Isaacs Hall (Wensum Lodge).

As merchant families built homes by the river, some founded chapels which became parish churches as the population increased with more traders arriving.

By the 14th century, King Street had 10 churches. It also had a Benedictine Cathedral priory at its northern end and Benedictine nuns at Carrow.

There were some magnificent homes and gardens.

When sailors arrived in Norwich they wanted a drink . . . and in King Street there was no shortage of pubs. The Old Barge Inn, the Ship, The Waterman, the Keel & Wherry — and the rest.

When the good miller Jeremiah James Colman built Carrow Works in the mid-19th century he closed down some of the old pubs at the far end of the street.

The rest of King Street enjoyed a riotous reputation. A hive of activity with breweries, factories and shops. A community with a thumping heart of its own.

Yet all the time the area was becoming unfashionable and it was allowed to become run down.

The yards running down to the wharves and the river were lined and honeycombed with poor cottages.

On the opposite side of the street were more yards, and above them a maze of steep, narrow little streets ran up the hill to link King Street with Ber Street.

Then it all came tumbling down in the late 1950s and early 60s. The street was left to rot and some appalling eyesores were put up.

Only now, in the Norwich of the 21st century, King Street is finally being given the tender loving care it so richly deserves.

Now homes are being built — the people are returning.

At last Reads Mill — originally Albion Mills built in the 1830s as a silk mill — is up for re-development. What we must do now is make sure that the architectural gems which are left, such as Howard House which has almost fallen down, are also restored to their former glory.

Then once again King Street can stand tall — it still has all the ingredients for being one of the finest streets in the whole of Norfolk, blending the best of the old and new.

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