What can be done to help Norwich's Anglia Square?

Graham Rutherford, Rosy Eyenga and Joe Sutton run three of the remaining shops in Anglia Square

Traders in an ageing shopping centre in Norwich said they felt it was still a valuable part of the city, despite it facing an uncertain future.

Anglia Square in the city centre is up for sale following the collapse of plans to completely redevelop the area.

Earlier this month, the city council agreed a plan to ask the government for funds to buy the site.

Rosy Eyenga, who runs an Afro-Caribbean food shop in the shopping centre, said: “It’s a very important place for Norwich.”

Several retailers have left Anglia Square, including Boots

LISTEN: Business owners tell BBC Radio Norfolk what they want to see

The glory days of Anglia Square – which opened in 1970 – are long gone.

The area’s decline began in the 1990s but has hastened in recent years with uncertainty over the site’s future.

Its cinema closed in 2019 and several shop units are empty, with Boots leaving earlier this year.

The centre, along with other buildings including two office blocks and a multi-storey car park, is now on the market with a guide price of £8.5m.

Norwich City Council said it will see if it can get funding from the government to buy the site and take control of any redevelopment.

But what do remaining tenants want to happen?

'I'd like to see it revamped'

Graham Rutherford recently moved into a bigger shop unit in Anglia Square

Graham Rutherford, from Ernie’s Zero Waste Shop, a store selling unpackaged foods like pasta and cereals as well as cleaning refills, said the loss of a major retailer was a big blow.

“When Boots closed we noticed a big reduction in footfall and it’s kind of stayed that way since," he said.

Despite that, he remains committed to the area; he moved his business into a larger unit two months ago and said he felt the centre could be reinvigorated with “a bit of a spruce up”.

“I’d like to see it revamped rather than being razed to the ground and built as somewhere that can be the same as in any other city,” he added.

'Ghost town' worries

Joe Sutton grew his business from car boot sales to a shop in the centre

Across the precinct, Joe Sutton runs Sutton Toys, which stocks action figure favourites from the '80s and '90s, including Transformers, He-Man and Star Wars.

Mr Sutton said he had grown his business from “the little car boot scene" and, along with the retro merchandise, said he provided modern toys for “low-income families”.

“To see the shops all closing down, it is a bit worrying that it’ll become a ghost town soon," he said.

Like Mr Rutherford, he said he believed that the shopping centre would benefit from improvements, without wholesale change.

“I’d like to see it basically kept the way as it is, because everyone knows Anglia Square – just make it look a bit more pretty and bring it back to life," he said.

“Back in the day you used to have the little electric play toys outside, the kids used to come down and go on the rides – they used to love it. Events as well used to happen down here – you just don’t see it anymore.”

'Give it a new image'

Rosy Eyenga said friends told her it would be a bad idea to open a shop in Anglia Square

Next door to the toy shop, Rosy Eyenga runs an Afro-Caribbean food store called FoodByCpC, where you can buy everything from catfish fillets and Cameroon pepper, to pounded yam and Banga soup.

It opened in 2021, but Ms Eyenga said friends warned her against running a shop in the area.

“I told people I’m going to open in Anglia Square, they said: ‘oh-la-la, be careful - Anglia Square is scary, be careful when you are closing – you need to have someone with you’," she said.

Ms Eyenga said her friends' fears were unfounded and that she believed the shopping centre was “an important place”.

Despite that she felt it should be demolished and rebuilt, as long as there was space for independent traders to serve the area’s diverse communities.

“Fifty years ago it was the best place. Now, you don’t even have a bank in Anglia Square…the one bank (here) closed.”

“For me, they should change everything – give it a new image”