Transformed from a forbidding symbol of Norman power to an accessible heritage destination, Norwich Castle has undergone one of the UK’s most ambitious historic refurbishments. Stephen Cousins reports
When William the Conqueror laid siege to England in 1066, ravaging vast areas of the country to establish his rule, he oversaw construction of a system of fortifications to suppress Anglo-Saxon rebellions.
Just one year after the Battle of Hastings, William I ordered the demolition of around 100 Saxon homes on a site in Norwich to make way for a wooden fort surrounded by deep defensive ditches.
The fort was later replaced by a stone castle, commissioned by William’s son King William II in 1094 and eventually completed by King Henry I in 1121. Over the following centuries the building went through various transformations, becoming a prison in the 1300s, and a museum in the 1880s.
Fast forward to the 2010s, and despite being the most well preserved Norman stronghold in Europe, a scheduled monument with a Grade I listing, the museum was no longer fit for purpose. The upper levels were notoriously difficult to reach, the original castle’s floor levels had been stripped out, and essential visitor amenities were non-existent.
A major refurbishment, green lit in 2018, sought to address these issues and return the castle to its medieval roots. Designed by Feilden and Mawson architects and completed last summer, the revamp cost £27.5m with the funding split mostly between the National Lottery Heritage fund and client Norfolk County Council.
For the first time in over 900 years, the original medieval floors and rooms in the stone keep have been reinstated, and kitted out with historically accurate furnishings. A new staircase and lift provide access to all floor levels, from basement to rooftop battlement. Meanwhile, a new entrance built next to the keep opens onto a cafe and museum shop, and a light-filled glazed atrium provides impressive views of the looming keep above.
But getting the project over the line was a historic battle for designers and contractors. The discovery of significant archaeology on site required extensive redesign work, notably in relation to a planned lift in the keep.
Erin Davidson, project lead at Feilden+Mawson told ADF: “The lift touched the ground archaeology, which was a scheduled ancient monument and therefore we had to consult with Historic England , as well as the above ground archaeology, which was the responsibility of the local authority. Dealing with both parties, we had to explain the issue, and the need for a big change to the design intent.”
Punching through the three-metre thick keep walls to create new access was another source of contention, requiring millimetre precision to avoid historic features. In addition, designing authentic-looking oak fire doors and adapting Victorian-era rooftop handrails to meet current Building Regs required extensive design iteration and liaison with experts to agree on a solution.
People’s palace
The richly layered history of Norwich Castle involved several changes over the past two decades, including works on the keep roof, improvements to physical access and connectivity and better environmental control in gallery spaces.
But despite these interventions, there was a realisation that the core of the museum complex, the castle keep, needed radical improvements to address alterations when the former prison was converted into a County Museum in the 19th century.
Limited vertical circulation and escape routes and a lack of space in galleries meant that only 150 people could visit the keep at any one time, limiting the museum’s income.
Other problems identified by the client included poor reception areas and wayfinding in the museum, a lack of visitor awareness of the keep once they were inside the museum, and a complicated internal floor configuration.
Feilden+Mawson was appointed to develop the design at RIBA Stage 2, and its scheme focuses on two critical but opposing requirements. The first is to return the keep to its original medieval layout circa 1121, reinstating the original principal floor where the King’s Chamber and Great Hall were once located (in the 12th century there was only a basement, a principal floor and the roof). The second is to maximise physical access so that visitors can access all the museum areas without having to take a guided tour.
Contentiously, the decision was made to strip out all of the keep’s Victorian-era floors, designed by Norwich-born architect Edward Boardman, leaving just the four limestone external walls. The Victorian Society strongly objected to this plan saying that destroying the Boardman elements “will flatten out this character.”
However, Davidson contends that removing the floors was necessary to create the structure to support the new principal floor, also noting that one section of Victorian floor was reinserted to create a British Museum gallery space that wraps around a mezzanine level.
Feilden+Mawson worked with a committee of 14 academic historic specialists to determine the original medieval layout. “We knew we had the correct height because of the scarring around the outside of the wall, pockets where the medieval timber would have been inserted were reused to house new steel work,” said Davidson.
Using historic evidence and signals from the building itself, the King’s Chamber, Great Hall, chapel and kitchen are all reinstated to their original positions with replica internal walls inserted. Interestingly, the King never lived at the castle, only staying there once in the 12th century.
Given the many layers of history to the building, it was very important, says Davidson, not to “over-reach with restoration and do too much.” As a result, efforts were made not to disturb archaeology or artifacts uncovered onsite and instead make them “part of the building’s future story.”
A key example of this is the new lift and stair core inserted in the southeast corner of the keep. When an area of untouched archaeology was found in the ground at the intended location, rather than dig it up, the size of the lift was reduced so it could remain undisturbed.
That meant switching the lift’s structure from glass to metal – a major change to the design intent because Historic England wanted a transparent lift to enable visitors to read the interior of the building as they moved vertically between floors. A degree of transparency was ultimately achieved by using mirrors on the lift’s interior.
Some ambitious opening up of the keep structure was required in the design in order to create a fully accessible and fire compliant building – it can now accommodate up to 500 people at any one time – and ensure at least two means of escape from any location inside.
Precision tunnelling
Creating a new doorway through the three-metre-thick north face of the keep at ground level meant precision tunnelling through solid stone. The structural engineer developed a clever metal structure that could be progressively inserted and bolted together inside the one-metre wide opening to maintain structural integrity as 100 mm sections of wall were removed. The painstaking process took six months.
“If they had tunnelled a little bit too far to the right or to the left we would have been in trouble, potentially hitting a buttress or a retained Norman sill, which at would have been a disaster as far as Historic England were concerned,” says Davidson, adding that the same opening served as the entrance point for the main contractor to bring in all the project’s steel work.
Another opening was created on the east side of the keep to enable wheelchair access to the principal floor via a bridge connected to the 1960s museum block east extension. “The client wanted to make sure that anyone needing assistance to get up to the principal floor was still brought in on a very noble historic route and wasn’t squirrelled away on some weird back access staircase,” said Davidson.
Mix & match
While the bridge itself is modern with a timber floor and glazed roof and walls, the design of the door opening had to match the language of the original architecture (as did all the other dug out openings). Elaborate new edging was designed to give the impression it had always been there.
With a range of architectural languages to respond to across the castle site, ranging from Norman, Georgian and Victorian, to the 1960s, a limited palette of materials and colours was chosen to make things cohesive but also distinct.
Inside the keep, modern materials including bronze, micro cement, engineered timber and black light fittings are juxtaposed against the Norman fabric. Across the rest of the site the focus is on white materials and fittings, black metal work, and oak. Glass is used throughout both areas.
“Using this simple palette we were able to respond to any surprises, but still have any changes remain legible within the scheme,” said Davidson.
Entry to the castle site is still via the impressive original Norman bridge, but the museum entrance was significantly modified to improve circulation, wayfinding and access to amenities.
The previous arrangement was convoluted and often heavily congested because various types of visitors arrived through a single doorway and were crammed into a narrow hall with three sets of staircases, two built in Boardman’s time, one built in 1969.
Feilden+Mawson resolved this situation by creating separate entrances for school parties and weddings and redesigning the main reception area to improve flow. Access to the museum is now via a new entrance created by transforming an existing window into a door.
The entrance space is illuminated by a glazed three-storey high glass atrium, formed by demolishing a small tunnel-like area with a low roof. “Now you come into what would have historically been the yard and get to stand back and see the full extent of the keep wall,” said Davidson.
Next to the atrium, the museum shop is located on the ground floor and the cafe on the first floor. The second floor contains an education space.
Boardman’s main entrance staircase leading up to the Bigod Tower (the ceremonial entrance to the keep) was dismantled and re-constructed to match his original, preferred, alignment, which also matches the original 12th century construction.
Restore & renew
Modern additions aside, the project involved diligent conservation work, including repairs to the keep’s roof, external stonework and key structural elements. Archaeological remains and surviving pier bases have been revealed, with former column positions marked by sculptural light installations.
Efforts to adapt certain historic fixtures for contemporary use, or recreate new versions that comply with current standards were a particular design challenge.
New replicas of elaborately decorated medieval oak doors are constructed as true to the Norman period as possible, using timber boards bound together with metal straps and hung on pintels rather than hinges. Designers worked with a Norfolk-based forge to develop and produce bespoke threaded nails that connect into concealed bolts to ensure the doors hold together for at least an hour in a fire, as per Building Regulations requirements.
“There is strong academic evidence that a solid oak door would last for an hour, but nevertheless we had to get a certificate to satisfy building control and the fire brigade,” said Davidson, adding that the design went through several iterations.
Upstairs on the rooftop terrace a plan emerged to retain and adapt Victorian-era balustrading on the north side and add LED lighting into new handrails. This not only required tests on the existing balusters to prove they meet contemporary loading requirements, designers had to also figure out how to get light to the hand rails, which proved hugely complicated.
“It took months and months,” says Davidson, “We went through about eight different iterations of how to get power to the hand rails without having to go through the inside or outside of the building to create new holes in the historic fabric.”
Although most visitors will be unaware of these huge efforts taken by the designers and contractors, Davidson notes: “It’s exactly right, and we’ve kept a layer of history that’s important to the keep.”
Norwich Castle’s successful transformation has clearly been a careful balancing act between restoration and reinvention, not just preserving over 900 years of history but opening it up to create a fit for purpose civic landmark to be enjoyed by future generations.