A furniture business with more than 100 years of history in Norwich is closing its city store after a dramatic drop in customers.

Wallace King Interiors is reeling from the effects of a huge roadworks programme which surrounded its Botolph Street store for over a year.

The company is now being forced to hold a closing sale at the site to extract as much cash as possible from its �825,000-worth of stock.

In a letter to existing customers, the company, which also has showrooms in Diss and Cambridge, announced that a private sale would begin tomorrow at 10am in Norwich, ahead of the company's city store 'closing down forever'.

The firm will then open the sale to the public from Saturday, in a bid to clear its stock of furniture.

Michael Wolton, managing director, said the decision to close the store had been 'hugely difficult and sad'.

He complained that the business had been severely affected by the roadworks, which were part of the St Augustine's Gyratory scheme near Anglia Square.

The work had reduced the amount of visitors to the store by 80pc and customers struggled to park nearby to collect furniture.

Turnover at the shop was �600,000 from December 2008 to December 2009, but this fell by 50pc the following year.

The business pleaded with council bosses to find a way around the problem at the time, claiming that they were 'on their knees'.

The closing down sale is expected to last up to six months.

If the firm is rescued by a cash injection in this time, then it could continue to trade, but Mr Wolton said this was not guaranteed.

'If a buyer at the very last minute comes in, then great, or if the bank helps out, then great, but we can't rely on that,' he said.

A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said: 'Unfortunately, carrying out improvement works of the scale of the St Augustine's scheme can mean that there is a period of disruption, but we do our best to minimise the impact on motorists, residents and traders.

'Pedestrian access was maintained at all times and by combining the improvements to the St Augustine's road layout with the replacement of the gas main, we avoided further disruption on the road at a later date.'

The struggling firm can trace its history back to 1906.

It was founded by Wallace King at premises on Upper Goat Lane, and run by his family for several decades after his death in 1949.

But in 1992 it collapsed under the weight of �3m in debts.

At the time the business had 10 stores across East Anglia and employed around 90 staff.

It was bought in August 1992 by a consortium of 11 members of staff, led by managing director Michael Wolton.

The firm now employs 10 full time staff and five part time workers, and there are a further eight subcontractors.