About Norwich

Norwich sparks with creativity. It’s one of Britain’s greenest cities, safest places, and with a thriving arts, music and cultural scene. Behind its medieval architecture, award-winning outdoor market, and vintage style of the Norwich Lanes, lies a history of radicalism, of innovators, creators and makers. The Sunday Times ranks Norwich as one of the best places to live in the UK: “A fashionable city with a growing sense of cool and a reputation for architecture, style and innovation. Cool, comfortable, relaxed and at one with itself.” 

What’s Norwich like? Nowhere else.

The city centre is rated as one of the UK’s top cities for shopping and is famous for independent shops and cafés you won’t find anywhere else in the world.

Norwich is the UK’s most vegan-friendly city and its historic open-air market is one of the biggest in Europe and bustles with life and the sights, sounds and flavours of a cosmopolitan city. And it’s all within easy walking distance of our campus.

A city of stories and culture

The city has a proud history of creativity, performance, and storytelling. Each summer, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival sees the streets, parks, galleries and theatres of the city taken over by artists, musicians, and performers from all over the world.

Norwich is England’s first UNESCO City of Literature, and home to the UK’s National Writing Centre. And as a key player in the city’s cultural life, Norwich University of the Arts was ranked as one of the UK’s top universities for creative scene by Which Student Survey 2018 and 2019.

In 2018, Norwich was recognised as one of five most affordable cities in the UK.

A growing creative economy

Norwich is home to a thriving community of creative businesses and digital start-ups: from design studios, film and production companies, to web and app builders.

Some of them have grown from Norwich’s own start-up incubator, Ideas Factory. The city is one of the UK’s most highly concentrated and diversified creative industry clusters (The Geography of Creativity in the UK, NESTA, 2016).

Norfolk’s beaches and Broads

Norwich is at the heart of a county famed for its 90-mile long coastline of big skies and stunning beaches.

The tranquil waterways of the Norfolk Broads National Park stretch over 200 km of rivers and lakes – a perfect place to seek inspiration. Green spaces and medieval villages offer up historical and architectural interest within easy reach of the city.