Earlham Road (the B1108) is a road 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 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, linking the city centre to the area of Earlham to the west of the city and the Norwich southern bypass ( A47) beyond.

Details

The road formerly marked the northern limit of the

Golden Triangle Golden Triangle may refer to: Places Asia * Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production * Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development * Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist sp ...

, a prime residential area of southwest Norwich. The term has since been expanded by local

estate agents An estate agent is a person or business in the United Kingdom that arranges the selling, renting, or managing of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents a ...

to include most of the southern region of the city within the outer

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

. At the city end of Earlham Road lies the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, a dominant

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

building built as a church in 1882 and designed by brothers George Gilbert Scott Junior and

John Oldrid Scott John Oldrid Scott (17 July 1841 – 30 May 1913) was a British architect. Biography He was the son of George Gilbert Scott and his wife Caroline (). His brother George Gilbert Scott Junior and nephew Sir Giles Gilbert Scott were also prominent ...

. Almost directly opposite lies the city's only

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

. Nearby is St. Thomas's

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

, at the bottom of Edinburgh Road and Caernarvon Road. The stretch of road between the city centre and the ring road has a number of pubs, including the Black Horse, the Mitre, and the Workshop popular among the large student population in the area. Shortly beyond the ring road lies City Academy Norwich, a secondary school that has been oversubscribed since the closure of the failing Bowthorpe School nearby. The main entrance to the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

(UEA) is just beyond Earlham School. On the other side of the road is Earlham Park, comprising part of the former grounds of

Earlham Hall Earlham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. It is located just to the west of the city of Norwich, on Earlham Road, on the outskirts of the village of Earlham. For generations it was the home of the Gurney family. The Gurneys were kn ...

, a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

used by UEA since the university opened in 1963 and now home to its law school. Since the building of the new

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is a large National Health Service (NHS) academic teaching hospital in the Norwich Research Park on the western outskirts of Norwich, England. The university hospital replaced the former Norf ...

on the B1108 on the eastern edge of the city, Earlham Road has become the main artery out of the city for ambulances.

Notable events

On 3 March 1988, Earlham Road was the scene of the bizarre sinking of a

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

. The cause of the event was found to be the collapse of a medieval

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

mine discovered under the road. The source of the photograph circulated across the globe via various internet humour websites and email circulars is not known; the image shown is from a different source. The day after the bus incident, following the publication of photos in national newspapers,

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

's began using the photo with the catchline 'Nothing fills a hole like a Double Decker', in reference to the company's chocolate bar. The advert won a series of awards and international recognition.

References

{{Reflist Roads in Norwich