NHER 53280 (Monument record) - Probable World War Two civil defence control centre for Norwich

June 2010. Norfolk NMP.
A complex of buildings constructed during World War Two – probably the civil defence control centre/headquarters for Norwich – is visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 2296 0654. The buildings are not visible on aerial photographs taken in 1942 (S5), but appear to be under construction in 1943 (S1)-(S2), itself a sign that they were presumably of some importance. Their construction during the war accords with a bibliographic source (S6), which relates that the control centre was initially housed below the war memorial in front of City Hall, and was then moved to a building in Heigham Grove, before suitable premises were specially constructed for it. Although the source places the new control centre in Ipswich Road, this site is a far more likely candidate, no similar construction being evident on the photographs of Ipswich Road, which is the next road leading into the city to the west. A second World War Two site, located less than 60m further along Hall Road to the north (NHER 53281), may be an associated site.
The site consists of a central concrete building, constructed around a courtyard (in which a garden is visible in 1945 (S4)); long, single-storey buildings, probably open-fronted garages or similar, are visible to its north and west. More recent aerial photographs (such as Google Earth) and Ordnance Survey mapping suggest that the complex still survives largely intact; the NMP mapping is partly derived from the latter.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 28 June 2010.

September 2010.
Site visit and verbal communication.It would appear that most of the WW2 buildings are indeed extant, with blocked and new openings.
See notes, plans and photos (S7).
D. Gurney (NLA), 27 September 2010.