page_title: Anglia Square Shopping Centre, Norwich
section_title: Redevelopment
hierarchical_section_title: Anglia Square Shopping Centre, Norwich / History / Redevelopment
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Anglia Square, Norwich
context_page_description: Anglia Square is a shopping centre in the north of Norwich city centre, in Norfolk, England. Opened in 1970, it was part of a larger Norwich redevelopment during this period, which was also complemented by the establishment of the HMSO building Sovereign House nearby, which opened in 1969. The square took six years to build, but was never actually finished.
  Pedestrian shop-lined walkways lead onto Anglia square which was originally open to the elements but now covered by a steel and glass structure – added in the late 20th century. The red brick and concrete buildings are finished in the brutalist style. Forming the western boundary of the centre is the former HMSO building Sovereign House. The building, now empty and due for demolition.
  In 2014, the centre was bought by investment manager Threadneedle Investments for £7.5 million. In early 2018, Weston Homes and landowner Columbia Threadneedle submitted regeneration plans for the site, which included a controversial 25-storey tower block, but due to intervention plans now submitted reduced the height to 20-storey.
context_section_description: The 1945 Norwich Plan, prepared for the city council by C.H. James, Rowland Pierce and Norwich City Engineer H.C. Rowlet, envisioned an urban dual carriageway encircling the city centre, creating ambitiously titled “gates” (aka roundabouts) at every major intersection. Although it was unrealised in its entirety, the western and part of the northern sides of this ring road became the Inner Link Road, constructed between 1968 and 1975.
  Many historic buildings were cleared in the making of Anglia Square and the subsequent inner-ring road. One of the oldest was the Kings Arms public house on Botolph Street, which on its gable end in large iron characters were the letters "I" and "C" and the date "1646", now preserved in one of the Norwich museums. Also demolished was the Regency bank at the junction of Magdalen Street and Botoph Street. Some other Georgian and Victorian buildings along St George's Street that survived the war bombings as well as gabled and jettied Tudor buildings. The cleared areas near where The Shuttles pub was never built on, and is still an empty wasteland today.
  The centre was designed by Alan Cooke & Partners who handled the whole development.
caption: The square
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