Lads link art and death mask

February 1, 2007

St GEORGE’S STREET (St Andrew’s Street)

This is an ancient Norwich street that is finally being given the future it deserves . . . it is being transformed into a haven for pedestrians, cyclists and tourists.

From early days the Gildencroft was a playground – and the shortest way to it from the city centre was known as Gildengate.

River view: Left, the Wensum at St George’s Bridge. Right, St George’s on the verge of pedestrianisation.

In the late 17th century it became Middle Street and now it honours England’s patron saint.

It still has some fine properties to admire and is home to the Norwich Playhouse and the world famous Norwich School of Art and Design.

The original street ran from St Augustine’s to St George’s, ending at the junction with Colegate.

The attractive bridge over the Wensum, called St George’s Bridge or Blackfriars Bridge, was built in 1784 on the site of a medieval crossing, designed by Sir John Sloane, architect to the Bank of England.

In those days, money to build bridges and crossings came from tolls of cargo using the rivers but there was little left to maintain them or the roads leading to them.

Norwich School of Art, on the site of a medieval brewery, was used as a school. It was founded by Old John Crome.

After, he married Phoebe Berney in 1792 and he lived in a house nearby in Green Lane.

One of his sons turned out to be the fine painter John Crome, so his father became known as Old Crome.

Nearby is a quadrangle known as the Garth. It used to be a cloister, part of the precincts surrounding the church of the Dominican or Black Friars when they moved from Colegate. Famous residents include the controversial Victorian preacher Father Ignatius who used a monastery Chapel nearby. He made his monks live on bread and water and pray eight times a day.

It is said he performed miracles and anyone who upset him would be cursed. His legendary punishments included caning, and some poor folk were ordered to draw an outline of the cross on the floor – with their tongue. He eventually moved on to Wales and founded a monastery in the Brecon Beacons.

Giovanni Bianchi, a figure maker in the 19th century, also had a business here and he was the person called on to make a death mask in Norwich castle of the notorious murderer James Blomfield Rush who killed the Recorder of Norwich and his son.

A crowd estimated at 22,000 watched Rush hang. His death mask can still be seen in the castle.

Then, in 1918, a motley group of about 30 boys queued up for the opening of the first club of its kind in the world in two club rooms behind the old Middle School in St George’s.

It was the outspoken and controversial Norwich Chief Constable John Henry Dain who opened up the Norwich Lads Club and, for the first time, the boys had somewhere to go. A big, tough practical policeman with a waxed moustache, he was also a kindly man, endowed with that rarest of gifts – vision. Eventually, the club moved to bigger premises in King Street.

When John Henry Dain opened the door of his club in St George’s, he also opened the door to a whole new world for thousands of youngsters.

In recent years this thoroughfare has been blighted by traffic but now it is being turned into a pedestrian way . . . let’s cherish what is left and that includes the old Red Lion, a pub with a rich history, that has been empty for too long.

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