Anglia Square Shopping Centre, Norwich

The area where Anglia Square stands today was part of the Saxon settlement of Northwic, which was defended by Anglo-Scandinavian defensive ditches running along what is now Botolph Street and Anglia Square car park. Magdalen Street and St Augustine's, which are two of the oldest streets in Norwich, date back to those times. During the 19th century, a Crape Manufactory – a factory which produced a fabric often worn when mourning, was built where Anglia Square now stands. The area was badly bombed during the Baedeker raids in April 1942, during World War II and the area was deemed suitable for post-war development.

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 square

The centre was designed by Alan Cooke & Partners who handled the whole development.[4]

The single storey shops include discount supermarkets and a wide range of privately owned and high street stores. The covered square features a selection of street stalls.

The cinema

Built on a concrete raft and rising above the centre is the former Odeon cinema which opened on 8 July 1971, then part of the Hollywood chain, which replaced a nearby 2,000 seat pre-war cinema, then in 2019 closing permanently. [5] In July, 2013 the cinema hosted the world premiere of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.[6]