Street Art and Graffiti in the City of Norwich

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Street art is generally regarded as an artistic and considered intervention, whereas graffiti is generally considered to have a negative impact. Street art can include painting, writing and murals on buildings, walls, the street and park furniture or other structure. In the UK, graffiti is widely regarded as vandalism, rather than art, and it has to be said that some confused and rather ugly spray painted scribbles can only be described as vandalism. Walking through Norwich, graffiti is mainly observed in public spaces, including the designated areas where it is permitted. Designs can change quickly, and what is here today may well have been replaced by something else tomorrow, although some rare examples have been left in place for years. Graffiti writers are said not to be interested in the general public understanding their artwork, but are primarily concerned with other graffiti writers who can decipher their coded tags and appreciate the style of the writing. A lot of graffiti tagging - a basic form of graffiti where the writer signs his or her name, symbol, or signature using spray paint - can also be observed. Stickers or posters, both relatively easy to remove, offer an alternative to using spray paint.

Norwich City murals

Norwich to date (August 2019) features eight large outdoor murals to see all year round, courtesy of Norwich Business Improvement District (BID). The Norwich BID mural project aims to enliven vacant and tired spaces around the city centre with dynamic large-scale murals to the theme of "City of Stories" and which build on Norwich’s status as England’s first UNESCO City of Literature.

Norwich Marketplace

In autumn 2019, groups from Notre Dame School, Free School Norwich, Norwich School, Open Youth Trust and Norwich Theatre Royal transformed the market with the help of a number of artists. The project, themed Norwich: Past, Present, Future, responded to Norwich BID’s Skills & Education objectives through partnerships with local schools and community groups. Artists received a prize and the opportunity to paint their winning mural design of their own, as well as producing a collaborative piece with the local school. The collaborative piece involved a workshop, whereby the artist was briefed by a group from the school or community group, allowing the artist to bring the group’s ideas to life. The resulting twelve murals, intended to act as doorways to the past, present and future of Norwich, were painted on some of the market stalls to celebrate the city's rich heritage and culture, with the aim of bringing stories of the city and the market to life, as well as complement the wider Norwich BID urban art project which sees the city come to life with large-scale murals across eight sites in the city.

The Lamb Inn / Lamb Yard

The pub was the scene of a murder when in 1797 John Aggas, the then licensee, was killed after having found is brother-in-law in the cellar, offering free drinks to his friends. The Grade 2 listed building dates from the late 18th century and houses the second oldest pub within the city centre (said to be haunted by at least three ghosts), with the first known licensee having been Joseph Trundle from 1761-1763. A number of murals, all created by Liam Clark, can be seen in the passage leading to it from Haymarket, depicting scenes from its history. More murals adorn the walls surrounding the beer garden and the entrance from Orford Place.

St Stephens underpass

Located underneath the roundabout where St Stephen’s Road meets St Stephen’s Street, Queen’s Road and Chapel Field Road, the underpass, which is used by hundreds of people every day on their way to and from work, in 2013 was transformed by artists, photographers and graphic designers who had come together to paste artwork on the walls.









  

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Chapelfield underpass

The underpass links Chapelfield Gardens with Vauxhall Street, passing beneath Chapelfield Road. The walls of the underpass are tiled, but the ramps leading to it from Vauxhall Road are used by graffiti artists.



         

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