County Hall, Norwich

For much of the 20th century meetings of Norfolk County Council had taken place in the Shirehall in Market Avenue. The education department, and some other departments, had moved to new premises at Thorpe Road in Norwich in 1929. After deciding that the existing premises were inadequate for their needs, county leaders decided to procure a new building: the site they selected had been occupied by Bracondale Lodge, a country house which had been commissioned by Dr Philip Meadows Martineau, a clinician at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, in 1793. Bracondale Lodge had been acquired by Jeremiah Colman MP in 1877 and had remained in the ownership of the Colman family until it was demolished to make…