At A Glance:
- Based at historic Dragon Hall
- Courses, events and opportunities for established and aspiring writers
The National Writer’s Centre at Historic Dragon Hall
Based at historic Dragon Hall in Norwich, the National Writing Centre provides a space where established and emerging writers can be supported and nurtured, workshops can be run for schools, visiting writers and translators can hold residencies and literature events can be held. The Centre in Norwich is a literature development agency for writers, readers, literature professionals and anybody who loves books. They also run online courses designed by the Creative Writing School at the University of East Anglia.
Dragon Hall itself is a unique, Grade I Listed medieval trading hall dating from around 1430, renowned for its spectacular timber crown-post roof and intricately carved dragon.
It was built for a merchant called Robert Toppes and was at the heart of his international trading empire. In its heyday it would have been filled with wool, cloth, timber, spices, pottery and other items that could be bought and sold.
For centuries the original timber roof and vast Great Hall were lost, concealed within an everyday terrace of houses and shops.
In 2012, Writers’ Centre Norwich (now the National Centre for Writing) led the successful bid for Norwich to become England’s first UNESCO City of Literature joining a prestigious network of cities worldwide.
Their mission is to develop the artform, to create learning opportunities and to build a sense of place.
The National Centre for Writing is open for a year-round programme of events, along with regular heritage tours of Dragon Hall (which is really worth a look).
To keep in touch with The National Centre for Writing and to hear about forthcoming events and workshops, sign up to their e-news via their website.
National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall,
115-123 King Street, Norwich, NR1 1QE.
