Dragon Hall is a medieval trading hall in the heart of Norwich, constructed from over 1,000 English oaks, seven bays with a crown truss roof and there are fourteen dragons inside. To be accurate there is fourteen carved dragons peering down from the roof, see if you can find them?  Dragon Hall is one of the ‘Norwich 12’, a collection of buildings that are of special architectural note and one of the finest examples of medieval trading hall surviving.  It was built in about 1427, by a wealthy merchant called Robert Toppes who built it as a business complex to display, store and sell Norfolk goods and imports from Europe.  It is considered unique since it appears to be the only such trading hall in Northern Europe owned by one man.

Situated next to the River Wensum which flows through Norwich and via the River Yare, to Great Yarmouth it provided access to the North Sea and the Low Countries and the rest of the world.  Robert Toppes became a very successful entrepreneur after he acquired the Dragon Hall site in the 1420s, exporting Norfolk worsted cloth and importing fine textiles, ironware, wines, and spices. During his life he rose through the civic ranks, however he also became embroiled with two disturbances, one being a disputed mayoral election after which he was exiled to Bristol for some weeks; the other was the so-called ‘Gladman’s Insurrection’ when he was indicted in the Kings Bench court.  Today Dragon Hall houses the National Centre for Writing, which it became after Norwich received the designation of a UNESCO City of Literature.