Business park vision for former hospital in Thorpe St Andrew

St Andrew's House when it was up for sale in 2011. (Image: Archant 2011)

Plans for St Andrew's Hospital, behind St Andrew's Business Park, north of Yarmouth Road, have been lodged with Broadland District Council by Christian entrepreneur Graham Dacre's Lind Trust.

St Andrew's House when it was up for sale in 2011, with the cricket pavilion pictured. (Image: Archant 2011)

The main building on the site, St Andrew's House, was originally an addition to the Norfolk Lunatic Asylum to the south of Yarmouth Road, being completed in 1881.

The old Thorpe Hospital building during it's partial demolition. PHOTO BY SIMON FINLAY (Image: Archant Norfolk)

The whole site was closed as an NHS hospital in April 1998 and the original grade II listed buildings from 1814 on the south site have since been converted into private housing.

St Andrews House was used as offices by the Norfolk Primary Care Trust until 2007 and in January 2011 the 13-acre site was put on the market by NHS Norfolk with a price tag of £2m.

Now the Lind Trust plans have been lodged for part-conversion and redevelopment of the site into 12,750sqm of office space and associated accommodation, inside a mixture of two and three-storey buildings.

The plans state: 'The masterplan for St Andrew's Hospital site is to create a unique new business environment in east Norwich, providing a framework for progressive redevelopment of the former hospital site for high quality buildings set within a mature landscape environment.'

The main central section of St Andrew's House is set to be retained, with permission to demolish the other buildings already granted and carried out.

The plans also state an intention to create a 'parkland' setting to 'enhance the concept of high quality buildings'.

The 5.10ha site's disused cricket pitch and derelict pavilion, not used for over 20 years, would be turned into car parking, with 450 parking spaces on the site in total.