Shirehall, Norwich


The Shirehall is a municipal facility in Norwich, Norfolk. It is a Grade II listed building.

History

An early Shirehall was built on the site in around 1270 and refurbished during the Elizabethan era. The current Shirehall, which was designed by William Wilkins in the Tudor Revival style, was completed in 1823. It was originally used as a facility for dispensing justice but, following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1888, which established county councils in every county, it also became the meeting place of Norfolk County Council. After the County Council moved to County Hall in 1968, the building continued to be used as a Crown Court until the new Courts Complex in Bishopgate was completed in 1988.
The building became the Regimental Museum of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in 1990. Although archives and the reserve collections are still held in the Shirehall, the principal museum display there closed in September 2011, and relocated to the main Norwich Castle Museum, reopening fully in 2013. The Norwich Castle Study Centre, which now occupies the Shirehall, contains a number of important collections, including an extensive collection of more than 20,000 costume and textile items, built up over a period of some 130 years, and previously kept in other Norwich museums. Although not a publicly open museum in the usual sense, items in the collections are accessible to the general public, students, researchers and others by prior appointment.