The Bethel Street drill hall office is a former military installation in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

No. 48 has a small 15th century

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and Vault (architecture), vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area whi ...

. The existing brick building (mock Tudor rendering) was completed in the late 19th century. The original home of the Ancient Order of Foresters, it became the headquarters of the 2nd East Anglian Field Ambulance

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

and, probably, of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, the

Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

as well around that time. The 1st Volunteer Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment, whose address was in St Giles (currently the home of the Salvation Army), evolved to become the 4th Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at St Giles before being deployed to

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

and then to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. The battalion then moved to the

Chapel Field Road drill hall The Chapel Field Road drill hall was a military installation in Norwich, Norfolk. History The building, which was designed by James Benest in the Gothic style to incorporate part of a tower from the old city wall and built by William Gilbert, w ...

(since demolished) later in the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

. The Bethel Street properties were subsequently decommissioned. The building became a bible printers (Goose Press), and then Modern Press. The premises are now owned by a

Climate change education Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate cha ...

charity, the Greenhouse Trust.

References

{{reflist Drill halls in Norwich