I absolutely hate the place.
I’ve lived all over ; Suffolk, Bristol, London, North Norfolk, Essex and various places in Europe etc. I moved back to Norfolk as I was born in Norwich, so I thought I would come back to meet someone and settle. It is the worst mistake of my life. I am still amazed at the racism, ignorance and societal divisions that I see in Norwich and Norfolk. If you google “Depression prescription UK”, you will see that Norfolk is labelled all red. It is a very depressed place and many people suffer with social anxiety and suicide is a common theme here (Check the EDP News).
People are very insular and cannot hold what I would regard as a normal conversation unless you’re in the smaller western part of the city where the culture is more pretentious but London culture centric. Some more local people who perhaps haven’t travelled much often grunt as a response to saying “Hello”.
Norwich City is hugely divided between the mostly white Christian wealthy population and everyone else. I find the pretence here overwhelming with people looking down their nose at you as they pull their kids from their £100000 range rovers. The whole culture here is focussed on women and children only with men tagging along like slaves to their wealthy partners often from London or their local wives that have barely seen anyone other than members of their own family for tens of years.
I find that people are suspicious of everyone here and the term “foreigners” is commonly used for anyone that isn’t white British. Most of the Cafes that I frequent are full of the same types of people. Women moaning and complaining about men and lots of sad lost and often divorced men contemplating suicide or severely isolated and depressed as nobody comes through this place so they will never meet anyone new. This isn’t a dig at women but please go to a few Cafes and listen, it’s depressing and awful. As for dating, there is a huge demographic gap and there seems to be nobody here between the ages of 30 - 40 who are single so you’ll find that families stick to themselves and speak to nobody other than themselves making it a very exclusive and often unwelcoming culture. A tip; don’t ever mention to anyone that the culture isn’t very friendly in Norfolk as you will be met with anger and hate and the next thing they will ask is “Were you born here?”.
Generally the gentry open and run most of the shops here making it a very expensive place to eat, further dividing society as most of the locals can barely afford to eat in any of the restaurants other than Greg’s. As for work, the wages are often a lot lower than the rest of the UK and nepotism is rife here so if you are part of someone family you will probably get a job. Be very careful who you speak to as everyone knows everyone here and most are part of each others families. I thought it was a joke about “Inbred” before I moved here but it really is. You won’t be able to breathe!
As for the scenery, it’s dull, very flat and just depressing with days often being a complete white out and not so much as a cloud in the sky. There is a gorgeous beach full of seals but there’s only so many times you can visit it.
I’ve been here 10 years and thankfully leaving this year. I’ve looked at all of the data and it’s shows that people move here after divorce or from London making it a very exclusive, depressing and inbred culture. Everything about the culture being about women and children make it a very dull place for anyone else with very little to do that isn’t a family activity and even then I meet families that are bored and need more diversity and interesting people to speak to. Recently we even had a wife end her life in the river. The council have even constructed suicide barriers around St Andrews Car Park after men had been jumping of for years but a women jumped so they decided that they needed to do something to prevent more suicides.
I have an Airbnb and I’ve asked every single guest what they think of Norfolk and Norwich and not a single person in over a year said that they would want to live here due to the isolation from the rest of the UK and the fact that there is nothing to do.
Sadly, after ten years of trying to highlight the awful culture here that the wealthy ignore for their own gain I’ve given up and cannot wait to leave and join the many inclusive, kind, diverse and welcoming counties in the UK. I wouldn’t even move here with a family through fear that they too would become either pretentious and/or ignorant.