The city of Norwich is the county town for Norfolk and is sited roughly 110 miles northeast of the capital, London. Norwich is typical of medieval cities in being divided into many tiny urban parishes, the city is reputed to have had a "church for every Sunday" but by the time of this transcript that had reduced to 35. St Clement parish lies in the north of the city, in that portion of the city lying immediately north of the course of the River Wensum, known locally as "Norwich over the water". The parish also included a substantial area of suburbs to the north and northwest of the medieval walls, an area that was later to become New Catton as the city expanded. The 35 parishes of the city were crammed into an area roughly heart-shaped and covering a mile east to west and two north to south, the parish of St Clement within the walls would have covered the tiny area immediately north of Fye Bridge and the first 100 yards of Magdalen Street together with some side streets. The area was not amongst the poorest in the city having largely artisan tradesmen rather than the hordes of yard-based weavers of some other parishes in this area.

The site of St Clement's church was one of the earliest foundations in the city documentary evidence placing a church on this site as early as the first half of the 11th century, nothing of that early church survives with today's building being largely a construction of the 15th century. With the exception of a single Decorated style window in the east end all else is Perpendicular in style. Pevsner dates nave and chancel to c1430 whilst the slender western tower is generalised merely to the 15th century. Documentary evidence again places the completion of the chancel roof to 1448, a date which is entirely consistent with the style. Victorian restoration of St Clement was relatively early in that period a "complete reparation" of 1846 being recorded. The church stands on the corner of Magdalen Street and Colegate in a rather urban setting with its eastern end almost flush with the pavements, the site is surrounded by a wrought iron fence and is cramped with few angles available to the photographer such is the press of surrounding buildings.