I cannot disacknowledge how hated the building is, but I personally love the whole of Anglia Square and it's brutalism. Partly perhaps, because I find relation to it and sympathy. For a style once loved and enjoyed, now looked upon as ugly. I heard a whole terrace neighbourhood was knocked down for it construction, memories destroyed to pave way for something new and ambitious. Yet, since it being built, the local authorities scarcely ever spent any further funds in upkeep and revamping it. Perhaps a failure in of itself, to not keep it up with modern standards (like the asbestos)... And if it wasn't the case, it may still be in use. It's kind of symbolic to wastefullness, and how love can change, or ruin something. The Soverign House has been around, and in disuse, since I was born. And it will always be somewhere I will remember fondly, as I've went here, pondered and enjoyed it's view at every stage of my life; granting me a love for brutalism. Perhaps its a "me" issue, but anything that will replace it: will never be quite as good, and will be a reminder of how human's recklessly abandon things. Though ultimately, I probably feel no different, to perhaps how the people who once lived in it's place originally felt. Though the only thing missing from this cycle, was love
Born in the Magdalen gates area 67 years ago I witnessed the destruction of this area of this fine city with this Anglia square and the flyover replacing the old Odeon cinema botolph street ect there was much that was run down in Norwich just after the war but I do not think it was worse then than now.Even as I witnessed the construction as a teen and as modern as it all looked it felt temporary compared to what it replaced.A great video Mr Bullock.
Nice to see, Ian. I'd never heard brutalist ascribed to "béton brut", but it fits! NYC has a famous brutalist museum building on Madison Avenue - the old Whitney Museum of American Art, for several years the Met-Breuer (named for Marcel Breuer the architect of the 1966 building), and now (still in development) an acquisition of the Frick Collection not far away. It's always been about modern art. It is frustrating that Sovereign House is so badly damaged by time and neglect. The 60's is still too recent for some to realize what may be lost. Nice thorough report, sir!
I love this building as I remember running through the hallways and getting lost there as a child when my mum worked there, I also did security many years later as building protection when one of the many failed rebuilding projects was in the pipeline. I've always been a fan of brutalist buildings they always seem so strong and stable, I'm not sure what that says about me but I love the way they look even as they decay. The most recent plans for rejuvenation have fallen through and it looks like we will have this building for a bit longer for which I'm pleased.
great video! thru-out the years of me seeing the building and never knowing what its purpose was! and yes i too is getting older and most defiantly boring, for me this is something of value which i enjoy! good job!
I enjoy the variety of the content on your channel, and I found this particularly interesting. As a fairly regular visitor to Norwich I can't really fathom why run-down, unloved horrors like Anglia Square and Sovereign House haven't been razed to the ground. They're a real blight on what is otherwise a fine city.
I worked in St Crispin's with Barclays Financial Planning before they made us redundant. We had a scheme where we had cheaper parking in the multi storey, they gave us fobs to use with the machines
One of my favourite brutalist buildings was Malthouse carpark which was demolished for Chapelfield mall. I thought the bomb sculpture on top was a unique feature.
As a student at UEA in the late seventies I felt that even when it was all functioning, Anglia Square and Sovereign House were completely out of character with the area and unfitting in a medieval city. Prospect House appears to have been built to a less ugly design and better quality materials so is worth maintaining. Yes, concrete stains horribly - the ziggurats at UEA look striking from the Broad but when viewed from the walkway, where everybody sees them, they are awful stained concrete slabs and this is only enhanced by the dustbins.
I’ve just realised I’m probably fairly unusual in having worked both in Prospect House (for Eastern Counties Newspapers) and Sovereign House (for HMSO) in the 80s/90s. I would say that Prospect House was much more comfortable and practical to work in. It never seemed like a very functional building to me. I was only in Sovereign House for a short period, whilst our floor in St Crispins was refurbished. It was summer and Sovereign House was unbearably hot. But I did pop in throughout the time when both buildings were being used in tandem. I’d suggest Prospect House was better built. Incidentally, I started based in St Crispins and it was definitely built for HMSO. TSO was much later.
I like this building so much that the picture of this building is on my website in contact page. This building is my symbol of norwich. Not the 2 lions, not the canary bird, not the mustard but this building :)
I worked in the building in the late eighties and early nineties. I would love to go inside and have a look around. Are any urban explorers out there? It looks like the old computer room annex is being used by QD's and this is where I spent most of my time.
@@harryf1ashman Do you know what happened when the place closed down? Is it true they moved a lot of the equipment to Birmingham? Any idea if any of that old hardware is still running things behind the scenes as a legacy system today?
Good video. Someone should remove the top, put some new nice steel and glass floors up there, make it all nice and water tight, replace office space with apartments. There is plenty of money in Norwich and these would make nice homes. Re-do the street realm with luxuriant planting, new paving and some trees. Keep retail and replace the parking with a smart modern multi storey car park. (there is plenty of space). Job done
It's such a shame that a developer didn't take on this building in the late 1990s, as mentioned at the 24 minute mark, and refurbish the building. Either commercial or residential. As Sovereign House's days are numbered, the owners of the land could at least consider demolishing the building in readiness for redevelopment. I guess who foots the bill for that is up for debate. Re: the student flats at St. Crispin's House - I wonder if this residential use will become a folly in the future. Isn't education something that can be done remotely more and more?
My latest RUclips video is about Victoria House, the Norwich office building used until recently by insurance firm Marsh. I’ve been really surprised by the interesting history of the building and its site. ruclips.net/video/TVxPVm6Kk0o/видео.html
I love this building and the graffiti on it too. Such a pity it can't be sympathetically restored obviously with modern comfort as I accept it did not hold even temperatures! Its so much more stylish and interesting than most of the dull developments put up nowadays in my opinion. I imagine they will build another dull development when they do get round to redeveping Anglia Square and rip whatever soul and character it has from it.
Why can't the building be let to a company at half price rent? Building wouild then be occupied by people. People bring custom to local shops. Better half rent, and a building cared for, than no rent, and a building falling to bits. Fault my logic someone ..
@@gordonbennet1094 No maintenance to the roof since it was built in 1968 so as thats well over half a century ago hardly surprising that water is now getting in.
@@jonathaneastwood2927 OK - got it. But ... still so many unanswered questions. The building cost mega-money to build. Why let it sit empty for years ? As I said, half rent (even a quarter rent) would have provided enough money to fix a leaky roof & attend to all other maintenance. I used to be a small-time landlord. Rather than have an empty room, I would reduce the price - and keep reducing it - till someone took it. Always better to keep a business ticking over, and wait for better times, rather than let the business go bust. Leaving a huge building empty and letting it fall to pieces makes no sense no matter how many explanations I get. Lets look at more fundemental possibilities. Was the design & build quality to bad that it was secretely decided to abandon the building, whilst not letting on that the plan was to abandon it ?
I cannot disacknowledge how hated the building is, but I personally love the whole of Anglia Square and it's brutalism. Partly perhaps, because I find relation to it and sympathy. For a style once loved and enjoyed, now looked upon as ugly. I heard a whole terrace neighbourhood was knocked down for it construction, memories destroyed to pave way for something new and ambitious. Yet, since it being built, the local authorities scarcely ever spent any further funds in upkeep and revamping it. Perhaps a failure in of itself, to not keep it up with modern standards (like the asbestos)... And if it wasn't the case, it may still be in use. It's kind of symbolic to wastefullness, and how love can change, or ruin something.
The Soverign House has been around, and in disuse, since I was born. And it will always be somewhere I will remember fondly, as I've went here, pondered and enjoyed it's view at every stage of my life; granting me a love for brutalism. Perhaps its a "me" issue, but anything that will replace it: will never be quite as good, and will be a reminder of how human's recklessly abandon things. Though ultimately, I probably feel no different, to perhaps how the people who once lived in it's place originally felt. Though the only thing missing from this cycle, was love
How sad. I lived nearby back around 1985. Haven't been back since Anglia Square 'worked' back then.
Born in the Magdalen gates area 67 years ago I witnessed the destruction of this area of this fine city with this Anglia square and the flyover replacing the old Odeon cinema botolph street ect there was much that was run down in Norwich just after the war but I do not think it was worse then than now.Even as I witnessed the construction as a teen and as modern as it all looked it felt temporary compared to what it replaced.A great video Mr Bullock.
Excellent, Ian. Keep the memories alive! I was there, 1968-96. A much better building than many of those occupied by HMSO in London.
Nice to see, Ian. I'd never heard brutalist ascribed to "béton brut", but it fits! NYC has a famous brutalist museum building on Madison Avenue - the old Whitney Museum of American Art, for several years the Met-Breuer (named for Marcel Breuer the architect of the 1966 building), and now (still in development) an acquisition of the Frick Collection not far away. It's always been about modern art. It is frustrating that Sovereign House is so badly damaged by time and neglect. The 60's is still too recent for some to realize what may be lost. Nice thorough report, sir!
I love this building as I remember running through the hallways and getting lost there as a child when my mum worked there, I also did security many years later as building protection when one of the many failed rebuilding projects was in the pipeline. I've always been a fan of brutalist buildings they always seem so strong and stable, I'm not sure what that says about me but I love the way they look even as they decay. The most recent plans for rejuvenation have fallen through and it looks like we will have this building for a bit longer for which I'm pleased.
Excellent and very interesting video. Thank you for it.
Very interesting! I had always noticed it as an eyesore, but never known it’s history.
great video! thru-out the years of me seeing the building and never knowing what its purpose was! and yes i too is getting older and most defiantly boring, for me this is something of value which i enjoy! good job!
Great video, I love the HMSO! Will be very sad to see it go!
Enjoyed this - you tell an interesting and thought provoking tale :)
I enjoy the variety of the content on your channel, and I found this particularly interesting. As a fairly regular visitor to Norwich I can't really fathom why run-down, unloved horrors like Anglia Square and Sovereign House haven't been razed to the ground. They're a real blight on what is otherwise a fine city.
Thanks so much, Tim. Glad you enjoyed the video. Ian B
I worked in St Crispin's with Barclays Financial Planning before they made us redundant. We had a scheme where we had cheaper parking in the multi storey, they gave us fobs to use with the machines
One of my favourite brutalist buildings was Malthouse carpark which was demolished for Chapelfield mall. I thought the bomb sculpture on top was a unique feature.
Simply known as "The Bomb" to everyone....👌
As a student at UEA in the late seventies I felt that even when it was all functioning, Anglia Square and Sovereign House were completely out of character with the area and unfitting in a medieval city. Prospect House appears to have been built to a less ugly design and better quality materials so is worth maintaining. Yes, concrete stains horribly - the ziggurats at UEA look striking from the Broad but when viewed from the walkway, where everybody sees them, they are awful stained concrete slabs and this is only enhanced by the dustbins.
I’ve just realised I’m probably fairly unusual in having worked both in Prospect House (for Eastern Counties Newspapers) and Sovereign House (for HMSO) in the 80s/90s. I would say that Prospect House was much more comfortable and practical to work in. It never seemed like a very functional building to me. I was only in Sovereign House for a short period, whilst our floor in St Crispins was refurbished. It was summer and Sovereign House was unbearably hot. But I did pop in throughout the time when both buildings were being used in tandem.
I’d suggest Prospect House was better built.
Incidentally, I started based in St Crispins and it was definitely built for HMSO. TSO was much later.
I like this building so much that the picture of this building is on my website in contact page. This building is my symbol of norwich. Not the 2 lions, not the canary bird, not the mustard but this building :)
Beautiful building
I worked in the building in the late eighties and early nineties. I would love to go inside and have a look around. Are any urban explorers out there? It looks like the old computer room annex is being used by QD's and this is where I spent most of my time.
What type of computers were you using back then?
@@AmySoyka ICL mainframes. This was a few years before the PC took over.
@@harryf1ashman
Do you know what happened when the place closed down?
Is it true they moved a lot of the equipment to Birmingham?
Any idea if any of that old hardware is still running things behind the scenes as a legacy system today?
Like the pount about the flint
Good video. Someone should remove the top, put some new nice steel and glass floors up there, make it all nice and water tight, replace office space with apartments. There is plenty of money in Norwich and these would make nice homes. Re-do the street realm with luxuriant planting, new paving and some trees. Keep retail and replace the parking with a smart modern multi storey car park. (there is plenty of space). Job done
I always thought that bronze thing was a trombone. Personally I’m not keen on the forum either. The brick is really 80s.
It's such a shame that a developer didn't take on this building in the late 1990s, as mentioned at the 24 minute mark, and refurbish the building. Either commercial or residential.
As Sovereign House's days are numbered, the owners of the land could at least consider demolishing the building in readiness for redevelopment. I guess who foots the bill for that is up for debate.
Re: the student flats at St. Crispin's House - I wonder if this residential use will become a folly in the future. Isn't education something that can be done remotely more and more?
Brutiful!
Red Walker what a gent
My latest RUclips video is about Victoria House, the Norwich office building used until recently by insurance firm Marsh. I’ve been really surprised by the interesting history of the building and its site.
ruclips.net/video/TVxPVm6Kk0o/видео.html
I love this building and the graffiti on it too. Such a pity it can't be sympathetically restored obviously with modern comfort as I accept it did not hold even temperatures! Its so much more stylish and interesting than most of the dull developments put up nowadays in my opinion. I imagine they will build another dull development when they do get round to redeveping Anglia Square and rip whatever soul and character it has from it.
It is still a beautiful building.
It’s a shame it wasn’t took over in 1996 and maintained. Goes to show what can happen to a building without maintenance.
Norwich: A brutalist nightmare
Allot of modern day buildings are very ugly.
If you like concrete, go to Coventry.
Why can't the building be let to a company at half price rent? Building wouild then be occupied by people. People bring custom to local shops. Better half rent, and a building cared for, than no rent, and a building falling to bits.
Fault my logic someone ..
Because after being empty for 30 years with the roof letting in gallons of water every year its beyond knackered.
@@jonathaneastwood2927 What sort of effin architects & builders build a building that lets in water ?? It's beyond ridiculous.
@@gordonbennet1094 No maintenance to the roof since it was built in 1968 so as thats well over half a century ago hardly surprising that water is now getting in.
@@jonathaneastwood2927 OK - got it. But ... still so many unanswered questions. The building cost mega-money to build. Why let it sit empty for years ? As I said, half rent (even a quarter rent) would have provided enough money to fix a leaky roof & attend to all other maintenance.
I used to be a small-time landlord. Rather than have an empty room, I would reduce the price - and keep reducing it - till someone took it. Always better to keep a business ticking over, and wait for better times, rather than let the business go bust. Leaving a huge building empty and letting it fall to pieces makes no sense no matter how many explanations I get.
Lets look at more fundemental possibilities. Was the design & build quality to bad that it was secretely decided to abandon the building, whilst not letting on that the plan was to abandon it ?
@@gordonbennet1094 I don't disagree with you it's just crazy.
ruclips.net/video/TVxPVm6Kk0o/видео.html
😂😂😂😂😂😂
ruclips.net/video/SLVXlF3M6BY/видео.html