The Forum Trust Limited

2nd Floor Blackburn House, 1 Theatre Street, Norwich NR2 1RG Tel: 01603 727950 Fax: 01603 727955 E-mail: [email protected]

Chairman: David McCall CBE, DL

Chief Executive: Robin Hall

fact sheet
www.theforumnorfolk.com

The Project
The Forum is the name given to the new landmark building at the heart of the Norfolk and Norwich
Millennium Project. The £63.5 million Millennium Project for the east of England is funded by a
£31.5 million grant from the Millennium Commission with matching funding from Norfolk County
Council, Norwich City Council and the business community. In addition to the building, the Norfolk
and Norwich Millennium Project has a responsibility for establishing a Norfolk network for the
dissemination of knowledge, to promote lifelong learning for the social and economic benefit of the
people of the county, and to provide a cultural and recreational amenity for the whole community.
The Forum is due to open in October 2001.

The Forum building

The landmark building has been designed by internationally renowned architects Michael Hopkins &
Partners, and is located on the site of the old library and former Bethel Street car park in Norwich.
The new public square between the façade of the new building & St Peter Mancroft church will be
known as Millennium Plain in recognition of the Millennium Commission’s major contribution to the
capital funding for this project.
The Forum’s design has attracted widespread public support for its unique horseshoe shape and its
use of both traditional and modern materials to successfully combine space and light. The eastern
end of the building features an impressive all-glass façade. One of the most distinctive features of
the finished building is the continuous exterior wall of handcrafted brick.

The Forum content

Origins & visitor centre - The new visitor centre is set to become an essential destination for both
local people and visitors to the area. At its heart is Origins - a new multi-media attraction on three
levels, taking the visitor on a 2000-year journey through time exploring the influence of invaders and
settlers on the people and culture of the region. more/

A Company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 3470398. Registered Charity No. 1074619. Registered Office: Francis House, 3 - 7 Redwell Street, Norwich. NR2 4TJ.
The visit culminates in a 180° film show setting Norwich & Norfolk in a modern day context. The
centre will also be the new home for a new retail outlet.

Tourist Information Centre - Relocating from its present-day Guildhall site the Tourist Information
Centre will be housed in the visitor centre. The centre will provide accurate and helpful information
on attractions, accommodation etc. and will also provide a booking service for visitors and residents.

Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library - At the heart of The Forum, the new Norfolk County
Council library is the original ‘raison d’être’ for the entire project (the previous Norwich Central
Library was destroyed by fire in 1994). It will be the finest regional public library in the country with
high standards of equipment and furnishing, including 220 study spaces. Eighty five of these will be
equipped with terminals providing free access to the Internet, word processing and desktop
publishing facilities and a wide range of CD-ROM information sources; ten of the terminals have
been specially adapted for the use by people with disabilities. On the ground floor the library will
feature a unique area know as ‘Express’ - a fast self-service section, open weekdays, evenings and
weekends, offering popular titles, CDs, videos, DVDs and Internet access.

The children’s section is also situated on the ground floor and is designed to encourage learning for
babies and children in a bright fun environment, with books, CDs and videos. For older children
there is a huge range of popular titles along with reference and online information for research
projects.

On the second floor, the Norfolk Heritage Centre combines information on Norfolk Studies and the
Norfolk Records Office and provides an ideal research base for local and family history projects.
The centre will house 16,000 digitised photographs of Norfolk and Norwich, which will also be
available on the World Wide Web. Also on the second floor is the Business Library combining the
resources of the business reference section, Business Link Norfolk Information Service and the
Euro Info Centre to offer a range of business and European information to the local business
community.

The new library makes extensive use of the best in information and communications technology,
with broadband connections to the other 50 branch libraries across Norfolk.

2nd Air Division USA AF Memorial Library - The Memorial Library, which is twice the size of the
original Memorial Library, will contain over 4,000 works, with study desks (some with PC’s to enable
links via the Internet to USA-based and other resources), and an enquiry desk. There will also be a
sizeable exhibition and meeting area, a large-scale map of all the bases from which the 2nd Air
Division operated in East Anglia at the time of the Second World War, and extensive information
about America today.

more/
The Learning Shop - The Learning Shop will be operated by a consortium of further and higher
education providers led by the University of East Anglia and City College. It is currently located in
Guildhall Hill, Norwich. It will provide information and guidance services mainly for adults who are
interested in learning and need help in finding what opportunities are available in Norfolk.

City Learning Station - The Learning Station will be operated by City College, Norwich and will be
based on the successful e-Commerce Centre currently sited in Theatre Street. It will be one of five
similar centres run by the college across the county and will offer training using the best of modern
technology, initially in the areas of IT and business and management-related subjects.

BBC East - The BBC is planning to move its Norwich-based television and radio operations to The
Forum. The new broadcasting facilities are set to be among the first of a new generation of multi-
media broadcasting centres across the UK. The BBC’s planned relocation will boost the Millennium
project significantly, both physically and in terms of the services it offers.

PizzaExpress - The Forum will house a PizzaExpress restaurant on the first floor at one end of the
bridge inside the giant glass façade, with extensive views for seated diners across Norwich's
famous Covered Market to the Castle. In a new departure for the brand, PizzaExpress will operate
Marzano, a new catering offer encompassing Marzano Alimentari deli serving salads and light
meals, The Bar serving a range of alcoholic beverages and Illy Coffee Bar. Total seating capacity
will be 250 across the four PizzaExpress experiences.

Car Park - The two storey underground car park replaces the popular Bethel Street surface car park
and offers 200 secure city-centre parking spaces with video surveillance. The car park opened in
October 2001.

2nd building & Millennium Plain - To meet the total accommodation requirements of the enlarged
Forum Project, The Forum Trust Ltd plans to construct a small second building behind the new Next
store (formerly C&A). Scheduled for completion in the second half of 2002, this second building will
not only meet the space requirements of The Forum Trust Ltd, but will complete the architectural
treatment of the new public square between The Forum and St Peter Mancroft Church, to be known
as Millennium Plain.

Outreach
One of the most important and innovative elements of the Millennium Project is its intended role as
the hub of a developing network in Norfolk and beyond for the dissemination of knowledge and the
promotion of lifelong learning for the social and economic benefit of all the people of Norfolk and
Norwich. The Project is already the Norfolk hub for the government’s Learndirect initiative, placing it
at the heart of on-line learning activity in the county. Access to over 600 on-line courses is already
available through seventeen ‘walk-in’ Learning Centres around the county, set up by the further
education colleges and the Library Service as part of the planned Norfolk-wide network. more/

The Learning Centres and smaller Access Points, located in schools, libraries, village halls and
other public buildings, are being established to cover the entire county so that every resident is
within seven miles of easy access to the ever-growing range of on-line education, learning,
communication and information services.

The Management Team

The Forum Project is managed and operated by The Forum Trust Ltd (formerly the Norfolk &
Norwich Millennium Company Ltd), which has contractual responsibility for managing the completed
project for 125 years.

The charitable company is chaired by David McCall CBE DL. Chief Executive Robin Hall leads a
management team comprising: David Janssens, Project Director; Mike Delph, Finance and
Administration Manager; John Smith, Head of Information and Learning; and Mark Hand, Marketing
Manager.

The executive is supported by a Board of non-executive directors drawn from the public and private
sector across Norfolk. In addition to David McCall, the Company Secretary is Jonathan Barclay and
the other non-executive directors are: Dame Elisabeth Esteve-Coll, Geoffrey Copeman CBE,
Norman Ashton, Heather Bolt, Geoff Loades, Moya Willson, Caroline Neville, Peter Stewart, Nick
Williams.

Funding
The Forum Project is funded by a £31.5 million grant from the Millennium Commission, with
matching support from Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council and the business community.

For further information please see our web site:

www.theforumnorfolk.com

or contact Donna Barker or Rebecca Cole

at Band & Brown Communications on 01603 417722 or e-mail [email protected]