News

There's a special drop-in day for families with children Friday, May 29, but 'Norfolk Street Now and Then' will still be on at Wisbech and Fenland Museum throughout June.

Photos of shop windows and traders taken right through from the 19th century and posters, paintings and memorabilia tell the story of the street which goes back to medieval times (the town's only remaining thatched shop, still there, was once the Thatched Cottage Toy Shop!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo - Onyx Theatre

Norfolk Street once extended past the Ferry House pub through what is now Onyx Court and near the end was one of the earliest purpose-built cinemas in Britain, sadly destroyed by a German bomb in the 1940s. A major slum clearance programme in 1968 made way for the street to end where it now does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A list of the trades carried on in the street from 1830 show a huge variety – bakers, boot and shoe-makers, butchers, cabinet-maker, dress-maker, carpenter, sweet maker, fur broker, basket-maker and teacher of the flute.

The exhibition like the Museum itself is free entry for adults with an annual pass and children under 16 as well as concessions.

* For more details see wisbechmuseum.org.uk or find us on Facebook. The Museum is open from 10am to 4pm, Wednesday to Saturday.