Britannia Barracks, Norwich - clock tower

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 30 Sep 2010

This imposing building stands on the edge of Mousehold Heath, which provided a suitable place for the training of various volunteer military formations that were formed to counter the threat of Napoleonic France. In Barrack Street stood the Cavalry Barracks, established in 1792 and later to be renamed Nelson Barracks. In the wake of the Cardwell reforms of the British Army in the 1880s, which resulted in the linking of line infantry regiments to counties, the 9th Foot - it became the Norfolk Regiment and later the Royal Norfolk Regiment - needed a new home and the Depot, named Britannia Barracks, was built on Mousehold between 1884 and 1886. It was here, in 1909, that King Edward VII reviewed troops with many thousands of the populace of Norwich using Mousehold, in particular the slope between Britannia Barracks and Gurney Road, as a great open terrace to see the King pass. The Regiment left the barracks in 1959 when it amalgamated with the Suffolk Regiment and moved to Bury-St-Edmunds. Most of the buildings subsequently became part of Norwich prison.

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