Tell
us about your favourite City in the Summer and win a fantastic weekend in
London
Send
us your best Summer in the City photographs
SUMMER IN THE CITY
If you have to spend the summer in a city, let it be Norwich with its fine
open spaces and those huge Norfolk skies, hopefully blue now after the rains
of July. Here are some of the best events to enjoy in the next couple of
months in the city. A fuller list is available from Visit
Norwich.
Throughout August, boos and oohs will fill the air as the city’s youngsters
are treated to a summer of free outdoor theatre in Norwich’s open spaces.
The ChildPlay
summer season starts with Wonderland with Alice on August 3-5. The following
weekend sees the performance of Carnival Child, a puppet show with music
from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Magic Theatre Company will be off
to the stars with Captain Marshmallow from August 17-19.
The Goldilocks tale gets a modern update from the Booster
Cushion Theatre over the August bank holiday weekend while the season
finishes with a riot of puppetry, juggling and dancing from the Krazy
Kat Theatre and their interpretation of the Red Riding Hood story on
August 31 September 1-2. Friday performances start at 3pm in Waterloo Park,
Saturday shows - again at 3pm - in Castle Gardens and Sunday morning shows
at 11am in Eaton Park.
Norwich is hosting its second biennial contemporary
arts festival this summer, linking exhibitions at the city’s major
galleries, such as the Sainsbury Centre for
Visual Art and the Norwich School of Art
and Design, as well as installations in city shops and open spaces and
live performances. AfterShock, at the Sainsbury Centre, brings together the
work of 16 international artists on the subject of violence and conflict. At
the Anglia Square Shopping Centre, art galleries from Europe, will run
temporary exhibitions focusing on the work of a single artist.
From September 6-9, many of Norwich’s most interesting buildings will be open
to the public as part of Heritage
Open Days. Top of the list should be the Great
Hospital, a 750-year-old almshouse that still cares for the poor and is
rarely open to curious visitor wanting to see the tiny monastic cloisters
and the breathtaking panelled ceiling of the chancel. Also worth a look will
be City Hall, a 1930s Art Deco masterpiece.
Norwich was one of medieval England’s greatest cities and that heritage is
evident in the stunning buildings from the period, particularly its ancient
churches and inns. In recent years, the city has shown itself to be
thoroughly modern, with the opening of the Forum Centre and two new shopping
centres.
Despite the latter, the city’s market and independent shops have thrived
and make it one of the best places to live in Britain. Here are our
favourite things about Norwich but we'd like to hear your favourite
summer-in-the-city tips. Enter our summer
in the city competition, tell us how you like to spend a day in your
favourite city and you could win a weekend in London.
1. The Plantation Garden, in
the grounds of the Beeches Hotel, off Earlham Road was created by a
Victorian cabinet maker Henry Trevor, who spent 40 years converting it from
a chalk quarry into the secret garden that is my favourite green space in
Norwich (just shrugging off intense competition from Mousehold
Heath).
Although some of the original features have been lost – such as a palm house –
there is still plenty to see, including a tall Gothic fountain and a
recently rebuilt folly. A long wall runs the length of the garden and is
dotted with grotesque stone faces. The garden is open every day from 9am to
6pm. Entrance £2. The best time to visit is on a summer Sunday when you can
enjoy afternoon tea in the garden from 2.30 to 4.30pm.
