\n Traders along Magdalen Street claim the demolition of Anglia Square and the construction of St Saviour’s Yard is having a \u201cmassive impact\u201d, with one takeaway owner saying he can no longer pay his rent.\n<\/p>\n
\n The changes are part of a \u00a3350 million revamp that will include the construction of 1,100 new homes and a range of leisure, retail and community spaces.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Anglia Square sign breaks as demolition work is started on the buildings. (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
\n The levelling of Anglia Square, a shopping centre which stood in the city for more than 50 years, began in November and is due to take six months to complete.\n<\/p>\n
\n The scheme is being led by an investment partnership\u00a0between Aviva Capital Partners and Norwich City Council, with funding from Homes England.\n<\/p>\n
\n PARKING WOES\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands of parking spaces have been lost as a result of the redevelopment work.\n<\/p>\n
\n City locals can no longer park in the\u00a0car park off St Saviour’s Lane.\n<\/p>\n
\n This is because St Saviours Yard, the city\u2019s new \u201cbox park\u201d development, with dozens of temporary container shops, has opened at the site.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 1,500 car parking spaces, spread across various blocks at Anglia Square, are no longer available.\n<\/p>\n
\n John Naylor, owner of Beatnix, a record shop in Magdalen Street, has been severely impacted by the loss of these facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Owner of Beatnix, a record shop in Magdalen Street (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have customers asking me where they can park all the time.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have had to open the shop late at times because I can’t find a place to park.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat\u2019s the issue for me.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have been here 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMagdalen Street has seen a lot of change.\n<\/p>\n
\n Beatnix in Magdalen Street (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI am all for the box park.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t think the council has thought things through enough.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n SHOPS CLOSING\n<\/p>\n
\n Next door to Beatnix, Quality Discounts (QD), was forced to close in November last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman for the store revealed this was due to the “loss of nearby parking” and “the introduction of hoardings around the redevelopment area”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Quality Discounts closed in November (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n The hoardings around Anglia Square (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n It became “impossible” to sustain the business, which had moved from Anglia Square.\n<\/p>\n
\n And other businesses are fighting for survival, including the owner of Zaza’s, Barza Aga, who is unable to afford to pay rent at his takeaway.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI am meant to pay rent on the 1st of each month.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cToday we are in the second week of January, and I still haven\u2019t paid.\n<\/p>\n
\n Zaza’s in Magdalen Street (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can\u2019t afford it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI did have two other staff members.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI let them go a few months ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I have been here for 18 months now.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen Anglia Square was open, business was thriving.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere were lots of customers.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s even a struggle to pay bills.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION\n<\/p>\n
\n Part of the project includes the construction of 1,100 new homes, including at least 50pc affordable homes, which will begin in spring 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n There will also be a revamped office and shopping space.\n<\/p>\n
\n Salman Gorz, a manager at Cafe Norwich, worries that next month things will get worse for the business as the bus stop opposite Anglia Square will be suspended.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “Our business has been here 21 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Salman Gorz, manager at Norwich Cafe (Image: Emily-Rose Thompson)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt has drastically gone downhill.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI am worried about there being no bus stop.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy customers are primarily older people.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s too far for them to walk in.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe council should have thought about us a bit more.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Greg Mcleod, who works at Premier, a corner shop in the area, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been less affected by other shops.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have some trade from the builders.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut the loss of the car park as a result of the box park development was unexpected.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s a worry that the shop could close.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI thought QD would stay.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey got hit really bad.”\n<\/p>\n
\n A council spokesman said: \u201cThis council has grasped the nettle and will be driving through the regeneration of the Anglia Square which has long been stalled for many years.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe do understand demolition and building works will have an impact on local traders.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is why we created the new box park, St Saviours Yard, which is already up and running and will, we believe, make Magdalen Street a really buzzing part of the city.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traders along Magdalen Street claim the demolition of Anglia Square and the construction of St Saviour’s Yard is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-367273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}