71A The Close, Norwich
In 1955 Bernard’s expanding practice had outgrown its office on the second floor of the British Legion Club in Cathedral Street (opposite the extractor fans of the former Regent Cinema!). Bernard obtained a long lease on part of the garden of No 71 The Close and designed a three storey building to house Ruth, his wife, and him in a maisonette with the new office on the ground floor and moved into it in 1956. At that time the office comprised a drawing office for 5 assistants, a room with a window overlooking the West Front of The Cathedral for Bernard and David Mawson and a small office for a secretary.
The practice had only been in No 71A for a year or so when Bernard & Ruth decided to hand over the lower half of their maisonette for office use and retreated to a flat on the 2nd floor. Their sitting room with a large window facing the Cathedral became Bernard’s office. The extra space sufficed for only about 2 years before additional accommodation was leased at No 73. At about the same time Bernard & Ruth started a family and, needing more room took on a long lease on No 6 The Close allowing the practice to take over the flat for more drawing boards. By the mid-1960s even more space was needed and a wing of Provincial House, further down The Close was acquired. By the late 1960s it was obvious that the office (80 strong by then) needed to be in one building hence the Ferry Road office came into being in 1968 and F+M left 71A for good.
No 71A is one of very few modern buildings in The Close. It is of traditional construction of brick & pantile with the gable wall facing the Cathedral in a mixture of brick & flint to blend in with the adjoining flint walls. The building is described in Pevsner’s The Buildings of England as ‘A Successful House’ and Norwich City Council’s City Centre Conservation Area Appraisal says that ‘it sits comfortably with its neighbours on Upper Close’. In 2008 Norwich City Council applied unsuccessfully to get it listed.
Steve Restorick, Feilden and Mawson LLP