Wedding Photographer Norwich — the Cathedral Close, the Castle and the Medieval Lanes
Norwich is England’s most complete medieval city — a city that was the second largest in England after London in the fourteenth century, whose circuit of thirty-two medieval parish churches, the Norman cathedral with its soaring Perpendicular spire and the Norman castle on its mound above the market still define the character of the city’s centre in a way that has survived more completely than almost any other English medieval city. For Norwich wedding photography, this translates into a portrait landscape of extraordinary archaeological and architectural depth: the cathedral close’s gas-lit lane of medieval canons’ residences, the castle’s high mound above the open market, the Elm Hill cobblestone lane of leaning medieval buildings, and the Mustard Shop district around Bridewell Alley all provide settings of concentrated medieval character available within fifteen minutes’ walk of each other.
Norwich Cathedral, Elm Hill and the Cathedral Close
Norwich Cathedral — begun in 1096 and completed across three centuries to provide the second tallest spire in England after Salisbury — is one of the supreme Norman buildings in Europe: the nave of fourteen bays, the immense round apse at the east end, the cloister with its 1,200 painted roof bosses and the bishop’s throne still in its original Saxon position behind the high altar. The cathedral close — entered through the Augustine Steward’s house and the St Ethelbert’s Gate — is a secluded precinct of medieval and Georgian closes and house fronts that provides portrait settings of great calm and antiquity. Elm Hill — a short cobbled medieval lane running between Tombland and Wensum Street — is the most photographed street in Norwich: the overhanging medieval houses, the Wensum river glimpsed at the end and the Church of St Peter Hungate’s flint tower at the bend provide a portrait setting of immediate medieval character unique in English cities.
The River Wensum, the Broads and North Norfolk
The River Wensum runs through Norwich from the north-west, passing under the Whitefriars Bridge in the city centre and alongside the cathedral close before joining the Yare east of the city. The Wensum valley from the Cow Tower ruin — a medieval brick industrial tower at the river’s cathedral bend, one of the oldest brick buildings in England — eastward towards Thorpe St Andrew provides gentle riverside meadow and water portrait settings within city boundaries. The Norfolk Broads begin just east of Norwich beyond Wroxham, twenty minutes’ drive from any city centre venue, and provide the broadland landscape as an additional portrait option for extended wedding days. The north Norfolk coast — Blakeney, Wells and Holkham — is ninety minutes north and can be incorporated into day-after portrait sessions for couples who want both the medieval city and the open coastal Norfolk landscape.