Norfolk Corners

Norfolk has an illustrious history in Circus as I discovered when I wrote about Pablo Fanque last year. Great Yarmouth proudly continues that tradition today by hosting the Out There Festival of outdoor arts and circus every September and also at one of Norfolk's finest institutions, Yarmouth Hippodrome . As the Hippodrome's web site says: The Historic Hippodrome is Britain’s only surviving TOTAL Circus Building, built in 1903 by the legendary Circus showman George Gilbert. An article in the Great Yarmouth Mercury describes how Gilbert escaped his poor origins in Norwich to join Hannaford's London travelling circus which took him to Yarmouth. Though he had mixed experiences of circus including injuries and abuse he was clearly inspired by it and achieved enough success with his horse riding, acrobatics and trapeze skills to build the Hippodrome in 1903. 'Hippodrome' is a French word which translates to 'ho