NHER 26201 (Building record) - City Hall, St Peter's Street, Norwich

January 1971. Listed, Grade II.
Original Listing Description:
City Hall. 1932-38 by C. H. James and S. R. Pierce. Brick with stone dressings, lower two storeys of stone. Flat roof. Five storeys with tower to rigth hand side. Twenty-five fourth floor windows. Central entry with six polygonal columns above rising from the first floor balcony and supporting entabulature. Triple doors and steps up flanked by lions. Metal casement windows with glazing bars throughout. Small semi-circular balconies in penultimate end bays with small fanlights above doors. The three end bays project. Parapet. Square clock tower topped with square cupola and finial.
This description is as it appeared in 2001. It has since been amended. See entry for May 2007 below.
Updated H. Hamilton (HES), 23 January 2018.

The Lions - one was purchased at the British Empire Exhibition 1936; made by Alfred Hardiman. The other was copied from it. They were not part of the original design.

See file for photograph of Georgian house demolished to build the City Hall and other press cuttings (S1), (S2), (S3), (S4), (S5), (S6), (S7) and (S8).
T. Sunley (NLA) 25 October 2007.

May 2007. List Entry amended from Grade II to Grade II*.
Listing Description Excerpt:
"City Hall with attached police station. 1932-38 by C. H. James and S. R. Pierce. Brick with stone dressings, lower 2 storeys of stone. Flat roof. 5 storeys, with tower to right-hand side. Twenty-five 4th floor windows. Central entry with 6 polygonal columns above rising from the first-floor balcony and supporting entablature. Triple doors and steps up flanked by lions."
Information from (S9), which contains further details of the history and importance of the building.
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S9) for the current listing details.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 20 August 2010. Updated H. Hamilton (HES), 23 January 2018. Amended by P. Beers (HES), 16 March 2020.

2008. Norwich HEART.
One of the finest municipal buildings of the inter-war period in England. Under guidance from Robert Atkinson and RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects), an architectural competition for the building was held. The winning design was by C. H. James and S. Rowland Pierce. City Hall holds the largest clock bell in the United Kingdom, with the deepest tone in East Anglia. Much of the interior is art deco in style. King George VI opened City Hall in 1938 to the largest gathering of crowds Norwich had ever seen.
See (S10) and (S11) for information.
D. Gurney (NLA), 27 January 2009.