Norwich wander

Thought it was high time to have a wander round the city I spent most of my days in or around, before university and work n stuff brought me further north. 'Norwich - A Fine City' says the sign, and it's hard to disagree. Here's just a snippet of the city whilst on a visit back home on a stonkingly hot day...

Strolling in past the old Norwich Union (or 'Aviva' as Ringo Starr etc would have you believe) clock

Old and new - The Forum pokes out from behind one of a gagillion churches in and around Norwich...

...The Forum is the striking new-ish library and info centre. The old library burned down in a horrendous fire in 1994 after some sort of gas explosion. Over 100,000 books lost their lives *pauses for moment's silence*

Wandering across from The Forum to the top of the market place, past Norwich's imposing city hall

Always loved this building, home to Norwich's flagship department store, Jarrolds, since the early 1900s

Trip down memory lane to my old art college (Norwich School of Art and Design), now rebadged as both a university *and* a college. A tad greedy.

Art college overlooking the river

Over the road to the college's other building

Nice building and doggie sign that took my fancy

St Andrews Hall, near the college, setting for graduation number one

Carrying on past St Andrews Hall leads to Elm Hill, a cobbled street with quite a few original Tudor buildings...

...now home to The Bear Shop, which I foolishly led the wife to (a rookie mistake), and exited shortly afterwards with a lighter wallet and a fairly big Paddington bear

Giant red rubber ball thing wedged in one of the cathedral entrances. It was an art installation entitled something like 'Wow, that looks cool but we now annoyingly have to walk well out of our way to get to the other entrance'

After a bit of a detour (damn red ball), here we are at Norwich cathedral

Opposite the cathedral, in an area named Tombland, sits this wonky old building. Has probably increased in wonk with many years of nightclubbing next door. I assume it's still a nightclub. Used to be a Ritzy's in my day.

Other side of the wonky building as we head back to the centre

Always loved this building as well. Feels like it should be somewhere on a mediterranean hillside but is actually a boring old bank. Booo.

Market in full swing. Wanted to get a pic of the multi-coloured awnings from the top of the market place but it was all blocked off with some kinda redevelopment going on

The Mustard Shop in the arcade. All the mustard and mustard-related merchandise you could possibly want under one roof

The beautifully decorative Royal Arcade

Arriving at Norwich Castle, slap bang in the city centre. Polished to within an inch of its life relatively recently, it somewhat resembled a George Wimpey new-build home but is beginning to get some of the authenticity back! Seeing it afresh, it's amazing how much I used to take it for granted, wandering from shop to shop.

Castle Mall entrance. 'I remember when it was all fields' etc. Had my first part-time job when the mall opened in the 1990s. Seems to look a tad more tacky every time I see it.

Leaving the city, strolling past a piece of the old city wall

And, finally, back from the wander, enjoying a spot of cricket with the family