The Shoebox Experiences

There's a change in the air, the kind that means our favourite season of tours is almost here. Cooler days, cosy jumpers and more dogs on tours.

Not every tour is suited to four-legged guests, but plenty are.

Assistance dogs are welcome on our Carrow House tour. Small, well-behaved dogs that can be carried are invited along on the Hidden tour. And dogs are welcome to trot beside you on the Norwich Knowledge tour, the Tavern Trail and City of Centuries.

So if your dog would enjoy a bit of history, a few admiring strangers along the way and maybe a treat at the end, this is the season to bring them with you.

We all know Taylor Swift made headlines flying into Norwich for Radio 1's Big Weekend. But global icons finding their way to our neck of the woods is nothing new.

It is easy to forget just how significant Norwich has been on the world stage and what an important part of history this city and surrounding areas has played. Behind our famously preserved medieval streets lies a city that has welcomed some of the biggest names, often when we least expected it.

For example did you know about a visit from Muhammad Ali? Because he stopped traffic on our streets in 1971, drawing adoring crowds during a visit to promote, of all things, a local supermarket project. A few years earlier, in 1963, Beatlemania hit Norwich in full force when The Beatles played a chaotic, screaming set at the Grosvenor Rooms. One many locals remember fondly or sadly depending on if they got tickets for the iconic event. By 1967 it was Jimi Hendrix bringing his Experience to the tiny, but perfectly rock'n'roll underground venue The Orford Cellar on Red Lion Street, and in 1972 David Bowie arrived as Ziggy Stardust himself for two legendary shows at Norwich Theatre Royal.

And that's only music, Norfolk has also been of huge importance in times of war and global politics. In 1933, Albert Einstein fled N**i Germany and spent time living quietly in a small wooden holiday hut on Roughton Heath in North Norfolk, before sailing on to America. Charles Dickens visited the region many times, staying at the Royal Hotel and performing his own works, which captured the often heartbreaking poverty of the time, to packed crowds at St Andrew's Hall. Decades later, in 2000, Arthur Miller, best known for being married to Marilyn Monroe but who also stood his ground in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, returned to UEA to celebrate his eighty fifth birthday and receive an honorary degree, having also visited for the inaugural UEA Literary Festival back in 1991.

Then there's film and TV, Norfolk's coastline and cathedral have become a backdrop of choice for the silver screen. Dame Judi Dench filmed inside the stunning cloisters of Norwich Cathedral for Tulip Fever in 2014. Gwyneth Paltrow walked across the sand for the iconic final scene of Shakespeare in Love, filmed on Holkham Beach in 1998. And while many think Natalie Portman came to film in Norfolk for the Other Boleyn Girl, most of that filming took place in Kent. However she did still find time to visit us swapping Hollywood for the same stretch of coast to film the eerie outdoor scenes of Annihilation in 2016.

We have almost certainly missed a few obvious names. Who else do you know who has visited Norfolk and deserves a place on this list.

Shall we play a game? Let's do two truths and a lie, Marble Hall edition.

One. The skeleton clock at the top of the Marble Hall stairs is one of only three ever made. The other two live in the State Hermitage Museum in Russia, and somewhere on the ocean floor off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Two. The marble that gives Marble Hall its name is only here because a rather famous Westminster church ordered it, then couldn't afford to pay. So it was sold on.

Three. One of Norwich Union's founding directors was once held at gunpoint. By the secretary.

So what do we think, which one's the lie?

We know it's early to mention it, back to school.

But we have a good few weeks of the school holidays to enjoy first, and many of our tours are suitable for all the family and offer a chance to educate and entertain even your little ones.

With tours that span across Norman Norwich, its place in the Industrial Revolution, wartime Britain and more, there is plenty that will be both relevant to the syllabus, while giving a unique perspective on our fine city's historic moments.

Need more convincing? Our children's tickets are all set at £8.50, making it more affordable for you to come and visit.

On this day, 1st August 1994...

Norwich awoke to a fire-gutted Central Library. Many historic documents were water damaged, along with more than 100,000 books lost to the fire.

Devastated in the fire was also the American Air Division Memorial Library, which housed some of the unique records of US servicemen's activities during the Second World War.

At the height of the fire, smoke was reportedly seen as far as 20 miles away, with more than 65 fire officers in attendance to try and tackle the blaze. The cause? A gas explosion triggered by a caretaker switching on the lights. Despite being blown backwards by the force, he was thankfully unharmed. Equally surprising was that no one else was harmed in the blaze.

After the fire, work was undertaken to try and salvage records dating back as far as 1090.

The library was rebuilt and reopened seven years later at The Forum.

Does anyone remember the blaze? Or the aftermath? We would love to hear your stories.

Photo credit: Flickr: mira66

After eight amazing years, we’re saying goodbye to the lovely Lisa as she heads off to start her own business!

Lisa has been a huge part of The Shoebox Experiences’ journey. She joined us as an Experience Host when we were running just a few Hidden Street tours each week, before progressing to Customer Experience Manager and overseeing our growth into Norwich’s number-one tour operator on Tripadvisor.

Today, we offer more than 12 tours, have a team of five Experience Hosts, and have welcomed thousands of delighted customers while receiving thousands of five-star reviews.

Thank you for everything you’ve done, Lisa. We’ll miss you, but we know you’ll absolutely smash your next venture.

Good luck from all of us!

📸 This photo was taken at Lisa’s leaving do at J. Doe & Co, where the team took part in a cocktail masterclass and had a go at making their own spicy Palomas. They were thoroughly enjoyed - particularly by Lisa!

We've had a lot of new followers lately, so it might be time to reintroduce ourselves and what we do.

The Shoebox Experiences is all about giving you access to some of the hidden history within our fine city. We work to celebrate, conserve and champion historic spaces in the city, using them to educate and inform.

We're made up of a brilliant team of people, who love what they do. Everything we do goes towards our main aim, helping people live connected lives, and nothing connects people more than sharing their history and stories. We see it every day in our comments, people who share moments from their childhood, memories of their old workplaces and fascinating insights into how Norwich has changed over the years.

As well as that, we are working hard to secure the future of what we do, with our 10 for 10 campaign celebrating our 10th birthday. This campaign is raising money to secure our iconic Castle Meadow building as well as promising to support and engage with the wider community.

So that's who we are, and we'd love to meet you and hope you come and say hi over the summer on one of our tours.

In the meantime, share a memory in the comments, we'd love to hear from as many people as possible who have experienced our tours over the years.