Friars Quay (Norwich) the River Wensum itself. The immediate history however relates to the use of the site as a timber yard until it was made available for development. Jewsons Timber Yard was established by John Wilson Jewson who shipped in timbers by wherries from Great Yarmouth. In 1868 George Jewson purchased a 17th-century house in Colegate which was used as the headquarters of the business. His son Richard (1867 to 1949) established Jewsons as the largest timber merchants between the Thames and the Humber. Richard became Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1917. The land was purchased by Norwich City Council in 1970.
Norwich Union's office. Other notable buildings that were lost were three theatres, Norwich Hippodrome on St Giles Street, which is now a multi-storey car park, The Grosvenor Rooms and the Electric Theatre of Prince of Wales Road, The Corn Hall on Exchange Street, the Free Library on Duke Street and the Great Eastern Hotel, that stood facing Norwich Station. In 1976 the city's pioneering spirit was on show when Motum Road in Norwich, allegedly the scene of "a number of accidents over the years", became the third road in Britain to be equipped with sleeping policemen, intended to encourage adherence to