Trowse pumping station owners ordered to make repairs

Officials have issued an enforcement notice demanding urgent repairs be carried out at Trowse Pumping Station.

The Grade II listed building was badly damaged in a fire in 2023 and the Victorian Society has since listed it as among its top ten most endangered buildings in the country.

Inside the derelict building (Image: Sam Barker @skyscout_)

Norwich City Council has issued an urgent works notice to Serruys, a development company owned by the Serruys family, which owns the site.

At a meeting this week, Adam Giles, Labour cabinet member for planning, said: "The deterioration of this building in recent times has been deeply disappointing.

"We have issued a notice requiring the owner to take action to make it safe urgently."

Previously, Norwich City Council has said the owners have been "unwilling to engage to find a solution" to restoring the structure.

The Grade II listed building opened in 1869 following a campaign from locals concerned about the high level of pollution in the surrounding rivers.

The building remains on the council's register of local heritage buildings at risk (Image: Sam Barker @skyscout_)

A second pumping station was constructed at the site in 1909 and the entire original complex remains, featuring unique designs of the period.

The site was purchased from the council in 2003 by Serruys and was last used as a furniture workshop, but it has since become derelict.

In November 2023, the building was ravaged by a fire which left the roof severely damaged.

The fire was treated as arson by the fire service, along with two further fires at the Deal Ground site in Bracondale and the disused St Andrew Hospital in Thorpe St Andrew. 

A teenager was arrested in connection with the string of suspected arson attacks but faced no further action after police closed the case.