A little over five years ago, we opened our patisserie in the Royal Arcade, Norwich. It’s a prime location on the corner of the entrance to the arcade from Castle Street. A walk through Norwich City Centre will treat the observant viewer to a variety of architectural styles. The Royal Arcade was built in the late Nineteenth Century when the Art Nouveau movement was a dominant style for grand buildings.
Shopping Arcade
The architect Bertrand Lemoine coined the term l’Ere des passages couverts to describe the major architectural trend that swept through Europe between 1786 and 1935. The phrase translates into English as the Arcade Era. Arcades were the shopping malls of their day, a place for the emergent middle classes to shop and be seen shopping. The roofed arches offered shelter from the elements and proved popular from sunny Italy to our own rainswept islands.
Art Nouveau Arcade
Norwich’s Royal Arcade was designed by the Norwich architect George Skipper. The poet John Betjeman – much concerned with heritage in his later years – compared Skipper to Gaudi, saying the former was as important to Norwich as the latter was to Barcelona. The arcade was built in 1898-99 and Skipper was clearly influenced by the Art Nouveau movement. The arcade’s Art Nouveau features include:
- Asymmetrical shapes
- Extensive use of arches and curved lines
- Curved glass (like our shop window!)
- Stained Glass
- Mosaic Tiling
- Designs influenced by nature
Restored Royal Arcade
An extensive restoration of the arcade took place in the 1980s. Hanging lanterns of wrought iron and glass and a new tiled flooring were put in. The glass roof and mosaic tiling were spruced up. Look above the shopfronts in the Arcade and you can see the work of the ceramic sculptor WJ Neatby who was also responsible for tiling adorning the walls of Harrods in London.
How Royal is the Royal Arcade?
As far as we know, there is no royal family connection to the Royal Arcade. The arcade was built on the site of an old coaching inn called the Angel (a theme explored in the head and wings motif carved above the welcoming arch at our end of the arcade) The Angel became the Royal Hotel in the 1840s. Queen Victoria famously reigned during a great expansion of public houses many of which were named with direct or indirect reference to the royal family. The Royal Hotel, after which the Royal Arcade was named, seems to have been part of this trend.
Next time you are shopping in central Norwich, take a stroll along the Royal Arcade. Don’t forget to look above the shopfronts to see all that beautiful Art Nouveau architecture. And call in to our Macarons & More shop to treat yourself to our selection of tasty and colourful treats!