This new report emphasizes what an important but understated asset the river is for Norwich – a river sequence that is emerging now from a fundamental change in patterns of use. This is expressed most vividly in rebuilding over the last decade and in developments now in progress.

Last year the Norwich Society initiated a new Conservation and Development Working Group, with the aim of looking ahead at key issues for the City. One of their first studies has been to consider the river, and launch a fresh drive to re-emphasise its importance for the City. Out of this has emerged a unifying concept and a report - entitled the "Wensum River Parkway". This report has been produced jointly with HEART, with valuable contributions from them, and an appreciation that much good work has already been done by the City and County Councils and the Environment Agency.

The report recognises that there is a single unified and identifiable thematic river route - and indeed one that needs to be related to the City's Spatial Metro scheme. This route, this single idea, highlights the city's historic heritage, but it also emphasises the river as a vital benefit to the city as an economic driver in business, cultural, recreational and environmental terms. And it can be seen to have the potential for development as a major tourist and visitor attraction.

This Norwich Society and HEART report is an "aspirational" and "alerting" study. It has many suggestions for the future, with parallels to other locations, and with the theme of an "entity" (ie a linear cultural space) that should be planned for on that basis, and free for all to enjoy.

What, therefore, the report offers is a visual progress along the route that you can take from New Mills (the head of the tidal waters) down to Carrow Bridge and the Boom Towers. And this sequence brings into focus aspects such as the following:

• The many new housing developments, their context & impact. These record rapid change Key development sites for the future.
• The need to enable pedestrian routes to flow along both sides
                               (and across wherever possible)
• The rich texture of historic buildings, sites & associations to be viewed
                               (giving a different perspective on the City's heritage)
• Opportunities for guidance, site explanation, maps
                               (to encourage visitors to experience the river route)
  
  Download the Wensum River Parkway Brochure as a PDF - 4.89mb

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