City Spotlight: Henrietta Billings Town
Norwich Embraces Sustainable Growth: A City's Rich History Meets Modern Development
Norwich, a city steeped in history and charm, is making waves in the realm of modern development. The Norwich City Council has a proven track record of creating contemporary high-quality housing projects, such as the Stirling Prize-winning Goldsmith Street and the 1970s Friars Quay.
Recently, the council has purchased a site that has sparked intense debate about its future development. This presents a significant opportunity to build on and enhance the characteristics that make Norwich great, attracting greater long-term investment and growth.
The city's unique blend of historic character, vibrant economy, and human-scale urbanism significantly influences new development. It emphasises the preservation of its distinctive architectural qualities and sense of place, highly valued by young creatives and entrepreneurs. This creates both a model for sustainable urban growth and a challenge, as the city faces pressures from potentially out-of-scale and low-quality developments that threaten its character.
SAVE Britain's Heritage plays a crucial role in promoting a more contextual vision for Norwich’s future. They actively opposed a controversial 20-storey tower proposal in the city centre conservation area at Anglia Square, successfully winning a public inquiry in 2020 alongside partners like Historic England and the Norwich Society. SAVE advocated for an alternative approach that reintroduced a street-based urban model rather than over-scaled tower blocks, aligning development more closely with Norwich’s historic human-scale urbanism.
Furthermore, SAVE Britain’s Heritage emphasises the opportunity to leverage Norwich’s heritage as an asset in attracting long-term investment and growth. They call for collaboration among developers, architects, local planning authorities, and political leadership to achieve high-quality, contextually appropriate development that enhances Norwich’s special qualities rather than undermines them. This approach reflects a broader ambition to integrate Norwich’s historic urban fabric with its contemporary economic vitality through sensitive, place-based planning.
The city's network of medieval streets, a castle, a cathedral, and predominantly low-scale contemporary new buildings, showcases the potential for outstanding, contextual design. When developers, architects, and local planning authorities work together, they can create developments that respect and enhance Norwich's historic environment while supporting sustainable, high-quality growth rooted in the city's identity.
SAVE Britain's Heritage kicked off its 50th anniversary program in Norwich with a national conference focusing on building new developments in historic contexts. The conference featured presentations, panel discussions, and walking tours to explore the challenge of accommodating new housing while preserving the unique character of historic towns and cities.
Norwich is home to a variety of businesses and uses, including large-scale corporate finance, universities, a booming cultural and tourism scene, and entrepreneurial, tech, and creative industries. The government's ambitious five-year housing targets necessitate a new positive approach to show how heritage can benefit development.
Professor Yolande Barnes spoke about the importance of distinctiveness in thriving places and the value of cities as centres of trade, exchange, business, and living. RIBA past president Sunand Prasad emphasised the importance of the quality and affordability of new homes, noting that new development in historic locations tends to be higher-quality than on greenfield sites.
Political will is needed to match the collaboration between developers, architects, and local planning authorities to achieve contextual design. Henrietta Billings reflects on the rich historic character, vibrant economy, and human-scale urbanism of Norwich.
In summary, Norwich’s historic character and human-scale urbanism define its appeal and set a framework for new development that must balance growth with preservation. SAVE Britain’s Heritage contributes by campaigning against inappropriate developments, promoting alternative contextual visions, and fostering collaboration to protect and celebrate Norwich’s unique sense of place. These efforts support sustainable, high-quality growth rooted in Norwich’s identity, ensuring its future development respects and enhances its historic environment.
[1] SAVE Britain's Heritage press release
[2] Norwich Evening News article
- SAVE Britain's Heritage is campaigning for high-quality, contextually appropriate development in Norwich, highlighting the unique opportunity to leverage the city's heritage as an asset in attracting finance and business investments.
- The city's future development, focusing on sustainable growth, presents a chance to enhance lifestyle qualities like home-and-garden aesthetics and human-scale urbanism that attract young creatives and entrepreneurs, while also supporting thriving businesses in finance, universities, culture, tourism, tech, and creative industries.
