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About HEART

• About Us
  • About the Norwich 12 project
  • About HEART

About HEART

Norwich 12 is an initiative by Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART), a private, charitable trust set up to act as an umbrella organisation for all the heritage on offer in Norwich, and to be a best practice exemplar internationally for heritage as a social and economic regeneration vehicle.

Background

HEART emerged from a perceived need to fill a gap in heritage management in the city since the management of resources was fragmented with no single vision of where heritage was, and should be, going.

There was a growing realisation of what an amazing collection of buildings, artefacts, people and stories there are in Norwich and how, if they were unified under one 'umbrella', they would have greater presence and a far stronger story to tell.

This would mean Norwich's assets could meet their full potential in improving the quality of life for local people and visitors, supporting the renaissance of the local economy, maximising the city's cultural attraction and providing a truly sustainable use of resources.

HEART's vision

Remarkably, the passage of centuries has not meant that our heritage has been destroyed, but rather it has become fragmented and forgotten. And yet collectively it represents one of the most significant heritage resources in the UK and indeed Europe.

HEART believes that Norwich deserves to be known as one of the premier heritage destinations in the UK and Europe.

HEART's vision is to comprehensively record, conserve, manage, regenerate and promote the heritage assets of Norwich as a unified resource so that they are recognised locally, nationally and internationally as a cultural entity of universal value and that their co-ordinated management facilitates and enables economic regeneration, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and cultural renaissance.

HEART is driving through the delivery of a £75m business plan over 10-15 years in order to do this. It is also establishing the co-ordinated delivery of one of the most outstanding cultural heritage products in Europe as a key driver for the local and regional economy and proving that a transferable heritage model can be a dynamic agent for economic and social regeneration.

HEART's activities

HEART's activities can be grouped around three themes:

• Norwich 12 - An iconic set of heritage buildings and institutions being developed as a universally important integrated family of cultural, economic and social attractions for visitors and local people
• The Strings of Pearls - A series of heritage collections, unique in the UK, each representing key development stages in a European context. Includes the largest collection of pre-Reformation churches north of the Alps, the largest group of medieval undercrofts in the UK and one of the UK's largest collections of merchant houses
• Time and Space - The largest and most complete medieval street pattern in England providing the 'glue' to bind the other elements together and a stage to create new economic and cultural activity

For more information about HEART please visit http://www.heritagecity.org/.

Michael Loveday, "Heritage Czar" and Chief Executive of Norwich HEART, the organisation behind the Norwich 12 initiative, has started blogging with his musings about heritage-related issues. Click here to view.

An initiative by Norwich HEART

Supported by HM Treasury's Invest to Save Budget