City folk react to plans to replace Norwich's Debenhams

A public consultation exhibition at the Forum saw developers showcase their proposals to replace the former department store with a new building.

Stanford Real Estate wants to knock down all but the basement and ground floor of the existing building, as part of a major redevelopment of the city centre site.

A CGI image of the new building which could replace Norwich's closed Debenhams store (Image: Lanpro)

The developers want to construct a new building, with new shops on the first two floors and 400 student flats on the other floors.

"Something has to be done because it's an eyesore," said former architect Richard Pennington.

"But even though there might be a need for student accommodation, we also need more affordable housing. 

"The floor plan is extremely depressing because I don't know how you'll be able to fit furniture in.

Richard Pennington (Image: William Warnes)

"And a metre-wide corridor means traffic will be dreadful.

"But something has to happen because it can't stay this way."

The empty site housed Debenhams until the department store shut three years ago.

The new building would be divided into different sections - with various points varying in height, but at its tallest, it would be three storeys higher than the current, six floor building.

"I've got no objection," said Steve Barker.

Steve Barker (Image: William Warnes)

"The new building isn't what I would call imaginative architecture.

"And there is a worry that we could end up with houses looking very similar.

"But Debenhams has been closed for a number of years and it's nice to see plans to bring the site back into use."

Ben Burgess, of planning consultants Lanpro, and Mark Doohan, of Benchmark Architecture, said the exhibition had received a mixture of positive and negative feedback.

"There's been a steady flow of people coming in," said Mr Doohan.

"Surprisingly there hasn't been a huge objection to the loss of the building.

Ben Burgess (right) of planning consultants, Lanpro, and Mark Doohan (left) of Benchmark Architecture (Image: William Warnes)

"But people have raised concerns over affordable housing.

"But overall there has been a relatively positive reaction to the designs."

An official planning application for the project is expected to submitted this summer.