St Margaret Westwick is a medieval Grade I listed redundant parish church in Norwich. Located in the historic Norwich ward of Westwick, it was one of three churches in the city dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch before the other two were demolished. Following its closure in 1975, it became a gymnasium and then an exhibition space. Since 2025, it has been known as St Margaret's Gallery.
History The church is medieval, and is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch, being one of 58 medieval dedications to this saint in Norfolk and one of three in Norwich, the others being the since-demolished St Margaret Combust and St Margaret Newbridge. Its suffix of 'de Westwick' refers to its position in the Norwich ward of Westwick.
The earliest known reference to the church comes from a confirmation of rights by Pope Innocent III that gave it to Hickling Priory, an Augustinian priory also in Norfolk, in 1209. The Valuation of Norwich, dated to 1254, also mentions St Margaret Westwick, assessing it at 15s; 5s was to be kept by the rector with the rest being divided equally among Hickling Priory's canons and the nuns of St George's in Thetford.
In the 1540s, both the other churches dedicated to Saint Margaret were demolished, leaving de Westwick as the only surviving church in the city with this dedication.
The church saw strong influence by the Oxford Movement; it was closed for five or six years and reopened after a restoration in 1868, which replaced all of its fittings in a perceived medieval style. Services were observed with a simpler use of English. Much of its stained glass dating from the Victorian era was destroyed in a bombing raid in World War II. In 1954, the church became a Grade I listed building. The stained glass in the east window was replaced in 1967 with an Ascension scene by Michael King.
1975–present: redundancy and St Margaret's Gallery
The church saw closure in 1975. It saw, for a short time, use as a gymnasium, though this did not have any facilities. The Norwich Historic Churches Trust administered the church as an affordable exhibition space by the name of St Margaret's Church of Art.
In 2020, Historic England added the church to its Heritage at Risk Register. A restoration programme funded by Historic England repaired its roof, masonry and drainage while also tending to issues in the south transept and east chancel walls. The funding totalled £500,000 on top of an initial £45,000 for. As a result, St Margaret Westwick was removed from the register in 2024. Following a failed attempt to turn the church into a piano bar that year due to unexpected discoveries in its architecture, the church returned to its former use of showcasing art in 2025, becoming St Margaret's Gallery which is run by the Norwich Makers and Artists Collective.
Architecture The church's current architecture is from the 14th and 15th centuries, taking place in piecemeal instances of construction. It largely consisting of flint with stone and brick dressings. It consists of a nave and chancel which have a south aisle and chapel, north and south porches, and a west tower. Its roof is made of slate.
The church's tower is of four stages, with its first three featuring diagonal buttresses. The fact that the buttresses stop prior to the belfry stage gives the tower a distinctive shape. There is a west door and window at its base, which are from the 20th century. Moving upward, there are square sound holes as well as two-light windows in the belfry that feature Decorated tracery. The tower's parapet is crenellated. Inside the tower is a gallery dated to 1707, which was created from the church's old communion rails.
The church's nave was likely built later than the tower, or widened later, as it crushes one of the buttresses on the tower. On the north side, there is a rood-stair turret.
The chancel is of two bays, and has three-light windows with four-centre arches and cusped intersecting tracery. The east window is from the 19th century, and is three-light. Below it is an arch of about which has been blocked with brick; this appears to have been an unusually placed doorway which may have given private pew access. There is a Victorian vestry positioned on the chancel's north side.
The south aisle to the church was added later than the nave and chancel, in the 15th century. The part of the aisle attached to the chancel and to the nave are likely of different construction, as the nave section has a string course which continues onto its east face but not onto the chancel aisle, which also has a lower roof line. The aisle features two four-light perpendicular windows with four-centre arches. In the south aisle, the roof has spandrels that involve wheel tracery. The chancel chapel at its east end is accessible through a small door in the nave's east end.
There is a two-storey south porch which is crammed far to the west end of the south aisle, possibly having been added earlier than the aisle itself. This porch has attached shafts as well as a two-centre arch on its outer door, featuring carved spandrels; these depict Saint Margaret, as well as another figure, among branches. On the porch's first floor it has a central ogee niche for a statue, either side of which are square-headed windows. The interior of this porch features simple tierceron star vaulting. The north porch is far more simple than the south porch.
Inside the church, there is an arcade of two four-centre arches; the arcade piers, made of plastered brick, are octagonal, though have concave sides and rounded corners which are similar to those in St Laurence's nearby. They are replicated in the pillars in the chancel aisle. There are interior arches to both the chancel and tower. The roof has a shallow pitch, and is single butt-purlin, featuring curved braces which appear from wall posts in turn supported by corbels. The nave roof, however, is boarded over, whereas the chancel roof is plastered.
Furnishings and monuments Most of the furnishings in the church, including the font, were removed and given to other churches after its 1975 closure. On one wall is the remains of an early carving of the Crucifixion of Jesus. The former church reredos, dating to the 18th century, has since been moved above the south door; it depicts the Ten Commandments, as well as Moses and Aaron. It saw conservation in 2008. The church had an organ which came to St Margaret's from St Gregory's in 1882, and now resides in the church in Little Barningham.
There are three 18th-century wall monuments to Brown family members. There is also a monument to Ann Rede () in the form of a low tomb chest in the chancel aisle.
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