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Castle Mall

The Castle Mall shopping centre was opened in September 1993 and took around 4 years to be completed. The site occupies nearly 7 acres in the centre of Norwich, 4 acres of which include a substantial part of an ancient monument, i.e. Norwich Castle. The building work also redeveloped one of the oldest streets in Norwich (Timberhill) as well replacing the unsightly area of the old cattle market.

As well as featuring a vast array of shops on three levels, the Mall also features, food courts, two car parks, bars and restaurants, a cinema and even park gardens on the top...

The Castle Mall is the home of Martin Burgess's 'Gurney Clock' which was given to the people of Norwich by Barclays Bank to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of what is now Barclays by the Gurney family in Norwich in 1775. The clock is in the shape of a golden lion automaton in a golden castle (the lion and castle are two of the heraldic symbols of Norwich) and has a weight-driven observatory Harrison regulator of a type designed in 1775.

On the hour, bronze balls are taken by the lion and travel down a track to a set of scales (a symbol of Barclay's Bank) and on into the castle. The clock took eleven years to build and was housed in a public park, but by 1992 it had been badly vandalised. After a long campaign by the Norwich Society, it was then restored and installed in the Castle Mall, Norwich, inside a massive glass and metal case.

10 Castle Mall facts:

Construction Cost	£75 million
Gross Built Area	1m sq. feet
Gross Retail Area	380,000 sq. feet
Car Parking	1050 spaces
Total Length of Piles Sunk	25,000 metres (15 miles)
Amount of Concrete Poured	180,000 tons
Quantity of Excavated Material	800,000 tons
Area of the Park	1.82 hectares (4.5 acres)
No. of Lifts	22
Total Development Cost	£145 million

Chapelfield Shopping Centre

Chapelfield is located in the heart of historic Norwich and occupies the former Nestlé factory site.

The projects aims to create "a new quarter enhancing the profile of the city as the regional capital for East Anglia; a place to visit and a place to live" and "reinforce Norwich's Top Ten position in the retail hierarchy".

The main department store is House of Fraser, with some 90 stores, shops, restaurants and cafes within the new £275 million mixed-use centre. There are also over 118 residential appartments.

Lend Lease opened the site to the public on 21st September 2005.

A few facts about the development:

• When Chapelfield is complete it will provide: 530,000 square feet of gross retail space
• A 140,000 square feet House of Fraser anchor store
• 10 large stores, 80 shops and 15 cafés and restaurants
• 118 residential apartments
• About 2,000 long term jobs opportunities having created 800 jobs during construction
• A new mixed-use retail destination for a catchment area of 1 million
• A destination of choice for a catchment area with £1.4bn spend

Find out more at the Chapelfield website.