Photographs show the sorry state of Anglia Square's buildings
The crumbling brickwork at the top of Sovereign House at Anglia Square. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: DENISE BRADLEY/Archant2021
Crumbling brickwork, boarded up windows, scaffolding and swathes of graffiti - these pictures show the sorry state of the buildings around Anglia Square.
Sovereign House - once home to hundreds of workers at Her Majesty’s Stationery Office from the late 1960s to the start of the 1990s - still towers over surrounding streets.
But, while it has its defenders, its Brutalist architecture is regarded by some as a blot on the landscape.
And the sight of scaffolding to catch disintegrating brickwork signals how neglect over time has not been kind.
Controversial plans to demolish Anglia Square and to build 1,200 homes, including a 20-storey tower, along with shops, a hotel and a cinema have been dropped.
Developers Weston Homes say they will work with the community - and objectors such as Historic England - to come up with a new scheme.
These photographs give an indication of the scale of the task ahead - and why so many see it as crucial that, this time, a scheme which everyone can back is agreed.