St Andrew's Hall
St. Andrew's and Blackfriars Hall once formed a part of a much larger church, the great conventual church of St John the Baptist. The present hall occupied the nave and chancel respectively. It had been built by the Dominican Friars, or Black Friars and was finished in 1471 after a fire in 1413 had destroyed their original building. According to a green street plaque put up by the city, St. Andrew's Hall was built at the expense of Sir Thomas Erpingham (1357-1428), Warrior of Agincourt.
In 1539, the building was in danger of being destroyed in common with many other religious buildings under Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The three times Mayor of Norwich, Augustine Steward, put in much effort to persuade the City Corporation to buy the building for £80. The purpose was to utilise the nave (St. Andrew's Hall) as "a fayre and large hall, well pathed, for the Mayor and his brethrene, with all the citizens of the same to repair thereunto for their common assembleges as often as shall be expedient."
St. Andrew's Hall has been put to many uses since it was built. According to a city street plaque, the Norwich Mint was housed there between 1696 and 1698. "£259,371 of silver coinage was struck in this hall by order of King William III."
The Children's Hospital was set up from money bequeathed by Thomas Anguish and had been intended for both boys and girls. However, there is no evidence that girls were ever admitted and until 1664, they lodged in St. Andrew's Hall before moving into a house in what is now Golden Dog Lane.
During the 1500's, many fires broke out in Norwich including one in 1507 that virtually destroyed all the properties in Elm Hill save for Bridge House. As a result, new safety rules were brought into force including the abolition of thatched roofs. Buckets and a ladder had to be made available in every church and every alderman in the city had to have the same available in his own house. A fire engine, ladders and buckets were kept at St. Andrew's Hall and the Guildhall.
In 1549, a major battle took place on St. Andrew's Plain in front of the hall. The battle was between an army of rebels led by Robert Kett and the King's army led by the Earl of Warwick. By its end, 300 lay dead (see Church and State).
A city library, the first in England, was set up under an Assembly order of 3rd May, 1608. Three rooms adjoining the house of the sword-bearer next to St. Andrew's Hall were to be used for this purpose. There it remained as a reference library until 1716 when it was decided that books could be borrowed. In 1857, a new Free Library was opened in St. Andrew's at a cost to the city of £10,000.
Norwich was famous for its radicalism during the 18th and 19th centuries. William Smith was MP for the city between 1802 and 1830. He was behind Parliamentary reform and opposed the slave trade. In 1828 he presented Parliament with an anti-slavery petition organised after a meeting at St. Andrew's Hall. He had collected 10,125 signatures. The petition was 150 feet long. William's son, Benjamin, also become an MP for Norwich from 1838 to 1847. Less radical, he was a liberal who supported the repeal of the corn laws.
In 1700, the city Corporation set aside a part of the hall to be used as a coffee-house. As well as all these uses, the hall also carried out its civic functions as a place for Corporation banquets and as the Assizes court.
"...in 1561, Wm. Mingay, esq. Then Mayor, invited the Earls of Northumberland and Huntingdon, Lords Thomas Howard and Willoughby, and many other noblemen and knights, with numerous ladies and gentlemen, to the guild feast, which they accepted, and expressed the greatest satisfaction at their genrous and hospitable reception. The expense of the feast, according to the bill of fare, amounted to £1. 17s. 2d."
In 1712, the steeple of the New Hall in St. Andrew's Hall fell.
In 1774, "St. Andrew's Hall underwent a complete alteration - several houses, the old gateway, and wall next to Bridge Street, were taken down, part of the green-yard was taken in, and the city library was re-built over the gateway, in the gothic taste."
On October 24th, 1798, "...it was agreed that a request should be made to Lord Nelson to sit for a portrait, to be placed in St. Andrew's Hall". In the 1830 gazetteer of Norwich, one entry reads, "At the east end is a fine picture, painted by Sir William Beechey, of Admiral Lord Nelson, presented to the corporation in 1804."
On October 25th, 1809, " - the Mayor Thomas Back, esq. Invited 341 gentlemen to a roast beef dinner at St. Andrew's Hall, which was brilliantly illuminated - a baron of beef weighing 17lb surmounted with the union flag, was brought in by four grenadiers, who carried it twice round, and then placed it on top of the table".
On September 18th, 1827, "The second grand musical festival for the benefit of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, consisting of upwards of 350 performers - it raised 1672l. 12s. 1d. To the charity."
From The Norfolk Directory of 1830:-
St. Andrew's Hall was formerly a church belonging to a monastery of Black Friars; at the dissolution it was given to the mayor and citizens, "for a hall to repair unto as a common assembley". The east front of this fine specimen of antiquity has been judiciously restored, and it is intended to rescue from destruction the other side, drawings having been made for this purpose. In the centre of the east end of the nave is a handsome clock, over which is a figure of justice, richly gilt; under the clock are the royal arms of England; and the whole of the walls are hung with fine historical paintings, and portraits of many gentlemen who have placed an ensign, 60 feet in length (and forms an interesting drapery), presented by Sir Edward Berry, Knt. captain of His Majesty's ship Foudroyant; and is the ensign of the French ship Generoux, taken in the Mediterranean on February 18th , 1800, by the squadron commanded by Lord Nelson. At the east end is a fine picture, painted by Sir William Beechey, of Admiral Lord Nelson, presented to the corporation in 1804. This curious building forms one of the chief attractions of Norwich.
Despite some restoration work (the octagonal tower collapsed in 1712) carried out in 1863, the building remains largely unchanged today and still carries out the same purpose for which it was saved from Henry VIII's commissioners over 500 years ago.
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