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Shopping centre demolition taking longer than planned

Owen SennittNorfolk
News imageOwen Sennitt/BBC An orange demolition vehicle sits on top of a pile of rubble with two large office buildings in the distance o a grey day.Owen Sennitt/BBC
Work continues to demolish Anglia Square in Norwich

Plans to build 1,100 homes on the site of a 1960s shopping centre complex remain on track despite its demolition taking longer than planned, a council said.

Norwich City Council had expected work to bulldoze Anglia Square's buildings would be completed by the end of spring.

Seven months into the project, the multi-storey car park, cinema and shops have been turned to rubble.

However, with summer around the corner, there is still a significant amount of work to complete, with a number of prominent buildings, including Sovereign House, waiting to be razed over the coming months.

News imageOwen Sennitt/BBC A grey Brutalist office block from the late 1960s can be seen with hoardings surrounding it on a grey day Owen Sennitt/BBC
Sovereign House still needs to be demolished

Sovereign House is a Brutalist-style office block which served as the headquarters of Her Majesty's Stationery Office between 1968 and 1996.

DSM Demolition, which is doing the work, also had to stop briefly last month after an urban explorer raised concerns there was asbestos materials still inside the Hollywood Cinema building before it was knocked down.

Tests later found no asbestos was present.

While demolition work is taking longer than planned, the council said it would not hamper the timeline for delivering the housing.

News imagePaul Moseley/BBC A yellow and black digger on caterpillar tracks is positioned in front of a concrete and glass low-rise building, with has ANGLIA SQUARE in red letters, with a shop underneath it. The SQUARE section has partially detached and is hanging loose from the wall. There are taller buildings to the right of the heavy plant.Paul Moseley/BBC
Work demolishing the existing buildings was due to be completed by the end of spring

A council spokesperson said: "Demolition of the buildings in Anglia Square will take slightly longer than planned due to the nature of these works.

"We are continuing with the demolition of the site with buildings along Pitt Street and with Sovereign House and Gildengate over the coming months.

"We plan to start building work in parallel, so the overall redevelopment remains on track to deliver 1,100 new homes plus new leisure, retail and community spaces for the city."

News imageOwen Sennit/BBC A woman with an umbrella walks past in front of a derelict house on the corner of the street, with security railings around it.Owen Sennit/BBC
Buildings along the Pitt Street side of the complex are currently being demolished

Currently there is a lane closure on Pitt Street, to allow for the demolition of the buildings there to be completed.

The precinct - built in the late 1960s and early 1970s - was bought by Norwich City Council for £5.6m in December 2024 after a housing developer pulled the plug on a £300m regeneration scheme.

About 350 homes — mainly flats — would be built in the first two phases and half of that development would be made up of social and affordable homes.

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