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 with a large shoemaking industry, but transitioned throughout the 1980s and 1990s to a service-based economy. The greater Norwich economy (which includes Norwich, Broadland and South Norfolk government districts) as measured by GVA was estimated at £7.4 billion in 2011 (2011 GVA at 2006 prices). The city's largest employment sectors are business and financial services (31%), public services (26%), retail (12%), manufacturing (8%) and tourism (7%). Unemployment in urban Norwich and the Norwich City Council area was 2.7% and 3.7% respectively in January 2014, compared to 3% across Great Britain. New developments on the former Boulton and Paul site include