10:48 30 March 2015
The Earl of Leicester pub on Dereham Rd, Norwich.
Photo:Antony Kelly
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For:EN News
EN pics © 2005
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ARCHANT NORFOLK PHOTOGRAPHIC © 2005
It is 10 years since the Earl of Leicester pub was controversially knocked down, yet its site remains an empty eyesore. PETER WALSH reports on an issue provoking frustration in one area of the city
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Where once stood an impressive landmark on one of the busiest routes into Norwich, now lies a fenced off wasteland of weeds and little more.
Here was where the Earl of Leicester pub once stood. It was a decade ago when the bulldozers moved in to flatten the building to make way for housing – despite a last-ditch campaign by those living nearby to get the pub listed in a desperate attempt to save it.
In the 10 years since then, although planning permission has been given for various developments, not a single brick has been laid on the site.
The ongoing saga is a source of anger and dismay to many in the city, particularly those living nearby and those who fought so hard to try and save it.
Rupert Read, a former city councillor for Wensum ward, said: “It’s terrible. This is exactly what we feared would happen, but I must say we didn’t expect it would be as bad as this – almost 10 years on and still nothing.”
Mr Read said he felt the local community had been “let down” by the debacle and suggested it might be time to look at seeing whether the government could look at bringing in new legislation to “force” people to build on land and not just “leave it in a derelict state for years on end”.
The recent reported development came in 2010 when the then new owner, Tim Hardesty, from Bergh Apton, near Norwich, applied to extend the period when development can start there, as the three-year limit for planning permission was about to expire. He declined to comment on what might happen next at the site.
Lucy Galvin, a city councillor for Wensum Ward, said she was “very concerned” about the situation, which has not only left people in the area without a pub, but with an eyesore too. She said: “It was much loved as a landmark and we’re left with a gap. It’s a waste of space and its something which needs to be addressed.
“It’s been going on for too long. It’s a real eyesore in a prominent position. We’ve been pursuing it over the years and I’ve been in touch with the developer and with the council and would like to see some action taken on this.”
Mrs Galvin said the site has also had a problem with people flytipping rubbish there over the years, while there has also been an issue of fences surrounding the site falling over in the wind.
Andrew Boswell, a councillor for nearby Nelson ward, said the fact a pub had closed and had since become a derelict site was an “absolute tragedy”.
The Norwich Society spent three years drawing up a list of buildings and landmarks around Norwich which should be safeguarded in an attempt to prevent them suffering the same fate as the Earl of Leicester pub.
Vicky Manthorpe, Norwich Society administrator, said that while the bulldozing of the pub
had a “positive effect” on helping to protect other buildings, the
area around the former pub had suffered.
She said: “It’s unpleasant and I know they do tidy it up every so often, but sometimes it gets dreadful.
“To have that empty is not helpful to the streetscape. It was a
punctuation mark and a rather pleasant one – a quite impressive Edwardian pub which I suspect could have been converted into a house or flats.”
Although the area needs to be redeveloped, she insisted consideration needed to be given to what sort of buildings were built.
“The site itself calls for something more than just some ordinary flats.”
Bert Bremner, cabinet member for housing on Norwich City Council, bemoaned the fact this was not the only case of its kind in the city.
He said: “It’s a terrible waste, and unfortunately, Norwich has been blighted by this.”
He added: “I just miss that building. It was a lovely building which stood out on the street and was unique.
“It’s a sad loss and a loss to the street.”
Concern at lack of activity
People living near to the eyesore site have expressed their concern at a lack of activity in the past decade.
■ Nick Oakley, 53, who lives on Bowthorpe Road, said the site was an “eyesore”.
He said: “It would be nice to do something with it because 10 years is a long time.”
■ But a 47-year-old man living on Dereham Road, who did not want to be named, said he would prefer it to remain a greenfield site rather than see lots of houses built on it.
■ A 64-year-old woman, who lives on Dereham Road but who did not want to be named, said: “It’s just an eyesore. We feel something should’ve been done before now – they should never have knocked it down.”
■ A 54-year-old woman who has lived on nearby Bowthorpe Road for 25 years but wanted to remain anonymous, said the situation was a “big concern” to her as there was a lot of rubbish there, as well as the metal gates falling down.
She said: “It was a very nice pub. We were disappointed it was demolished so quickly and then nothing seems to have happened and you wonder why it was knocked down in the first place.
“We understood it was going to be knocked down to be rebuilt upon, but nothing has happened. We just want to know what’s going to happen with it.”
Pub history
The Earl of Leicester pub, which stood in Dereham Road, dated back to 1843 and was one of five pubs owned by the Dotheredge Brewery, in Coslany Street.
It survived the Luftwaffe’s bombing raids during the Second World War, but, in 2005, Norwich City Council’s planning committee granted permission for Citygate developers to build 16 flats on the site. The bulldozers quickly moved in to knock down the pub, after a last-ditch effort to get English Heritage to list the building failed.
By March 2007 planning permission was granted to Brundall-based East Anglian Property Ltd for 12 flats to be built on the site.
But work on those flats never started.