Once a large Parish Church stood on the piece of land the other side of this gateway. All that remains today is the 44' tall tower.
St. Bartholomew's was hit by an incendiary device on 29th April 1942 during the Baedeker Raids and all except the tower was demolished in 1953. The Church was a substantial building in the perpendicular style and possibly stood on the same site as a pre-conquest Church.
The North aisle was build in 1878 as a memorial to Bishop Hall who lived at the nearby Dolphin House and who was buried under the chancel when he died in 1656
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The substantially Victorianised building with the east end of the 19th Century south aisle juxtaposed slightly awkwardly with the continuous nave and chancel beside it. The gable cross of the matching north aisle peeped over the roof line.
There was no clerestory, and both aisles appeared taller than the nave, giving it something of the appearance of a long animal poised to spring. The 15th Century tower, with what looked like 18th Century elaborations to the battlements, was elegant, but rather slight in proportion to the rest of the building.
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The parish of Heigham is just about as close as it is possible to be to central Norwich and still be outside the walls, and long before the 19th Century this was a busy place. By the middle of the Victorian era the part of the parish to the north of the Dereham Road was a tightly hemmed area of working class terraces, with street corner shops and pubs, some of which still survive. The area was bound to the north and west by the river, and by the long curve of Waterworks Road, the huge waterworks which served the city also providing one of the district's employers. The parish church for this growing area was not only enlarged at this time, but also supplemented by new churches: St Philip on Heigham Street, which was demolished in 1975, St Barnabas, and also St Thomas up on the Earlham Road.