Editing Norwich (section)

====Post-war redevelopment====
[[File:Norfolk Terrace.JPG|thumb|The [[University of East Anglia]], which opened in 1963]]

As the war ended, the city council revealed what it had been working on before the war. It was published as a book – ''The City of Norwich Plan 1945'' or commonly known as "The '45 Plan"<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/the-1945-plan/ |title=Imagined futures past: '45 Plan – Invisible Works |date=13 May 2014 |work=Invisible Works |access-date=5 August 2018 |language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805231040/https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/the-1945-plan/ |archive-date=5 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> – a grandiose scheme of massive redevelopment which never properly materialised. However, throughout the 1960s to early 1970, the city was completely altered and large areas of Norwich were cleared to make way for modern redevelopment.

In 1960, the inner-city district of Richmond, between Ber Street and King Street, locally known as "the Village on the Hill", was condemned as slums and many residents were forced to leave by [[compulsory purchase order]]s on the old terraces and lanes. The whole borough demolished consisted of some 56 acres of existing streets, including 833 dwellings (612 classed as unfit for human habitation), 42 shops, four offices, 22 public houses and two schools.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/views/derek-james/returning-to-the-lost-village-on-the-hill-in-old-norwich-1-1697965 |title=Returning to the lost "village on the hill" in old Norwich |last=James |first=Derek |work=Norwich Evening News |access-date=30 August 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830110811/http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/views/derek-james/returning-to-the-lost-village-on-the-hill-in-old-norwich-1-1697965 |archive-date=30 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Communities were moved to high-rise buildings such as Normandie Tower and new housing estates such as Tuckswood, which were being built at the time. A new road, Rouen Road, was developed instead, consisting mainly of light industrial units and council flats. [[Ber Street, Norwich|Ber Street]], a once historic main road into the city, had its whole eastern side demolished. About this time, the final part of St Peters Street, opposite [[St Peter Mancroft]] Church, were demolished along with large Georgian townhouses at the top of Bethel Street, to make way for the new City Library in 1961.<ref name="oldcity.org.uk"/> This burnt down on 1 August 1994 and was replaced in 2001 by [[The Forum, Norwich|The Forum]].

A controversial plan was implemented for Norwich's inner ring-road in the late 1960s. In 1931, the city architect Robert Atkinson, referring to the City Wall, remarked that "in almost every position are slum dwellings put up during the last 50 years. It would be a great adventure to clear them all out and open up the road following the wall which has always been a natural highway. Do this, and you will have a wonderful circulating boulevard all around the city and its cost would be comparatively nothing."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gas Hill to Harvey Lane |url=http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norwich/gas.htm |website=www.georgeplunkett.co.uk |access-date=7 May 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926174935/http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norwich/gas.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> To accommodate the road, many more buildings were demolished, including an ancient road junction – Stump Cross. Magdalen Street, Botolph Street, St George's Street, Calvert Street and notably Pitt Street, all lined with Tudor and Georgian buildings, were cleared to make way for a fly-over and a [[Brutalist architecture|Brutalist]] concrete shopping centre – [[Anglia Square Shopping Centre, Norwich|Anglia Square]] – as well as office blocks such as an [[Office of Public Sector Information|HMSO]] building, Sovereign House. Other areas affected were Grapes Hill, a once narrow lane lined with 19th-century Georgian cottages, which was cleared and widened into a dual carriageway leading to a roundabout. Shortly before construction of the roundabout, the city's old [[Chapel Field Road drill hall|Drill Hall]] was demolished, along with sections of the original city wall and other large townhouses along the start of Unthank Road (named after the Unthank family, local landowners).<ref>{{Cite web |last1=James |first1=Derek |title=The real story behind Unthank Road |url=https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/views/norwich-golden-triangle-unthank-derek-james-1-5352280 |website=Evening News |date=12 January 2018 |access-date=25 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125184433/https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/views/norwich-golden-triangle-unthank-derek-james-1-5352280 |archive-date=25 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

The roundabout also required the north-west corner of [[Chapelfield Gardens]] to be demolished. About a mile of Georgian and Victorian terrace houses along Chapelfield Road and Queens Road, including many houses built into the city walls, was bulldozed in 1964. This included the surrounding district off Vauxhall Street, consisting of swathes of terrace housing that were condemned as slums. This also included the whole West Pottergate district, which contained a mix of 18th and 19th-century cottages and terraced housing, pubs and shops. Post-war housing and maisonettes flats now stand where the [[Rookery (slum)|Rookery slums]] once did. Some aspects of The '45 Plan were put into action, which saw large three-story Edwardian houses in Grove Avenue and Grove Road, and other large properties on Southwell Road, demolished in 1962 to make way for flat-roofed single-story style maisonettes that still stand today.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/PICNOR/BIBENQ/155332801/2219614,5?FMT=IMG |title=Spydus – Image Display – Record 5 of 8 |website=Civica |publisher=Norfolk County Council |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528133028/https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/PICNOR/BIBENQ/155332801/2219614,5?FMT=IMG |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Heigham (Norwich)|Heigham]] Hall, a large Victorian manor house off Old Palace Road was also demolished in 1963, to build Dolphin Grove flats, which housed many Norwich families displaced by [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]].

Other housing developments in the private and public sector took place after the Second World War, partly to accommodate the growing population of the city and to replace condemned and bomb-damaged areas, such as the [[Heigham (Norwich)|Heigham Grove]] district between Barn Road and Old Palace Road, where some 200 terraced houses, shops and pubs were all flattened. Only St Barnabas church and one public house, The West End Retreat, now remain. Another central street bulldozed during the 1960s was St Stephens Street. It was widened, clearing away many historically significant buildings in the process, firstly for Norwich Union's new office blocks and shortly after with new buildings, after it suffered damage during the Baedeker raids. In Surrey Street, several grand six-storey Georgian townhouses were demolished to make way for Norwich Union's office. Other notable buildings that were lost were three theatres (the Norwich Hippodrome on St Giles Street, which is now a multi-storey car park, the Grosvenor Rooms and Electric Theatre in Prince of Wales Road) The Norwich Corn Exchange in Exchange Street (built 1861, demolished 1964), the Free Library in Duke Street (built 1857, demolished 1963) and the Great Eastern Hotel, which faced Norwich Station. Two large churches, the Chapel Field East Congregational church<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/memories-of-a-lost-norwich-church-1720824 |title=Memories of a lost Norwich church |first=Derek |last=James |date=23 February 2011 |website=Norwich Evening News}}</ref> (built 1858, demolished 1972) was pulled down, as well as the {{convert|100|foot|adj=on}} tall Presbyterian church in Theatre Street, built in 1874 and designed by local architect [[Edward Boardman]]. It has been said that more of Norwich's architecture was destroyed by the council in post-war redevelopment schemes than during the Second World War.{{Cn|date=August 2024}}