Norfolk Uncovered: HMSO Sovereign House 

Reg Walker thank you for being a part of this!

Architecturally it reminded me of my office working days of late 90''s early 2000's So i'm glad to see this video, but what I do not understand is, why is there so much paperwork hanging round. That should have been destroyed.

Thanks for all the good info on the site Reg, very interesting hearing someone who knew it before the decay talk through it

@@ItsSpecialHands Good of you to say so. Chris deserves the credit for thinking of it, and following through so professionally!

@@regwalker7420 yeah he does great work and his videos are thoroughly interesting, a real treat for those of us who are curious

I very much doubt we'd be able to get access now- we had permission ten years ago and were extremely lucky to have gained access! I dread to think how bad it is inside now... 😬😞

I too joined HMSO in 1975 first at Norvic House then at St Crispins and after 5 years I'd had enough and started a successful 1 man printing business until cheap colour print on the internet put an end to it. My name is Ron Giles one of the 'highly talented' people you worked with although I do not recall your name. When in PP the TO I worked under subsequently did time for corruption! It seems Sovereign house had problems from the start with glass panels having to be replaced with solid ones as the place became like a greenhouse.

Were his initial JC by any chance? If they were I also worked under him for the last 2 year's before I left in 1985 to join WH Smith as their Promotional Print Buyer

I have a feeling there will be no regeneration. My theory is the whole of Anglia Square will be left uncared for until it eventually is not worth it to maintain the few shops still there and the whole site will be abandoned.

It was a fine looking building when built if you look at the old photos. The lack of maintenance can make any building look like an eyesore. It’s a unique buildings with the twin spiral staircases and brick water tower on top.

Funny seeing you here

One of the spiral staircases has been boarded up with metal

They’ve taken the transmitter masts down now for some reason. They used to be on top of the water tower. It may not be pretty but it’s quite a unique building and haven’t seen one like it. One of the first buildings I saw as a kid as we arrived in Norwich. That and and malthouse carpark.😊

Thanks for your comment. We were lucky as the building's then-owners and Anglia Square management were very accommodating 9 years ago. Not to mention the fact that Reg got in contact just at the right time- we couldn't have asked for a better guide!

@@ChrisRichmond thanks for getting back to me I always remember this building and wondered what it is like inside I used to work as a cleaner at winterfer house on rose lane it's not as massive as sovereign house but similar sort of building it's both great and sad to see sovereign falling into disrepair but even if I don't get to explore it I can always watch videos on what it looks like inside it kinda reminds me of one of those buildings out of a zombie movie it's still an impressive structure and it was wonderful reg was able to show you around even showing you his old office but as always awesome video couldn't believe how big and how much of the 60s style is still there intact places like the reception area stairs and some of the rooms even seeing areas not shown onthe other video I watched like the first aid room canteen the entrance leading to reception the lift machinery room I am really interested Inthis place some areas look like they have collapsed the roof in the corridors but I still think it's a great impressive building will be so sad when it's gone but it's still there it's good to still see it standing

They want to demolish whole of Anglia Square, so the whole place is going to slowly deteriorate until it eventually gets demolished. Sad to see such a cool piece of brutalist history go. All they do is board more up as it gets more deteriorated and plan after plan doesn't happen. My theory is the whole of Anglia Square will be left uncared for until it eventually is not worth it to maintain the few shops still there and the whole site will be abandoned.

It's not going. The longer it stays undeveloped, the more it deteriorates so it will be not worthy to fix it, and the plans to redevelop it just end up not happening, or get opposed. My theory is the whole of Anglia Square will be left uncared for until it eventually is not worth it to maintain the few shops still there and the whole site will be abandoned.

Yea... no. My theory is the whole of Anglia Square will be left uncared for until it eventually is not worth it to maintain the few shops still there and the whole site will be abandoned. They never will demolish it because of opposition from the public.

Still is 14/11/20

It's not going. My theory is the whole of Anglia Square will be left uncared for until it eventually is not worth it to maintain the few shops still there and the whole site will be abandoned.

keith7836 the underclass ? What the fuck gives you the right to say such a thing ? Fucking nazi

keith7836 actually it has some nice independent shops which people own and make a living out of. It has some nice music, game shops and a Riley’s sports bar!

Plain and simply your a piece of shit mate. Hope you become lower class one day and have to live in the real world.

@@madmallett some times the truth hurts

I like it for how brutalist and eerie it is

it's one of the city's most ionic buildings! If it was maintained then it would look much nicer. That brick tower is a nice feature

@@underneonloneliness2 I also love the multi story car park, it has a brutalist charm to it

@@mushroomcraft I always preferred the malthouse car park where Chapelfield is now. It was the big bomb sculpture it had at the top that made it unique. I remember as a kid in the late 90’s early 00’s looking up at it and thinking what the hell is that thing on top.

@@underneonloneliness2 Wow, never knew about it. Sad to see such unique car parks being replaced with boring underground car parks or ugly space wasting floor car parks

@@mushroomcraft Agreed! Went to Blackpool the other week and they had a big single ground floor carpark which was completely full due to the height of the summer. I was thinking why on earth didn’t they build a massive multi storey so people have more space to park. It’s easier to build upwards because you take up less land space.

It was 2012 when I first enquired. First of all with the developers, then Centenary-Ashcroft, who then passed me onto the management of Anglia Square. We were VERY lucky to have arranged this then, but I doubt it would be as easy to arrange now, as I believe there has been further deterioration inside in the 12 years since! You can but try...