Topping out ceremony marks important milestone in creation of new homes for Norwich Wednesday, 2nd November 2022

A project to build 323 new homes on Norwich’s riverside has reached an important milestone, with a topping out ceremony celebrated on the roof of the fourth and final building of the Canary Quay development.

The ceremony marks the completion of the structure and roof of the final building, which will deliver 101 new homes – 46 for shared ownership and 55 to be sold on the open market.

Our Norwich office are providing architectural services for the project and were joined at the ceremony by Broadland Housing Association, who acquired the land in 2010, and construction firm R G Carter.

Chris Stammers, Director and Architect, said: “The completion of this block of 101 new homes represents the final piece in the jigsaw of the wider Canary Quay masterplan. We are excited to see the completed street scene and, most importantly, for people to be able to move in soon and join this vibrant riverside community.

“Working with Broadland Housing Association has been a pleasure and we’re proud to be part of the team providing high-quality affordable housing for Norwich.”

Built on Geoffrey Watling Way on land formerly owned by Norwich City Football Club, Canary Quay offers a mixture of social housing, affordable homes and open market properties. In 2019 the first residents moved in, with the first apartments made available for affordable rent.

Representatives from Broadland Housing and R G Carter poured ale from Norwich brewer Woodfords over the roof of the final building in the topping out ceremony. This final building provides a ‘podium’ for the development, a raised garden and open space for residents overlooking the river Wensum.

Chris Ewbank, Chair of Broadland Housing, said: “One of our priorities is to provide much-needed affordable homes for the people living in the City. Canary Quay is an important part of the solution.

“This has been an ambitious project which has taken a very strong partnership to deliver.  What we have created here is a vibrant new community for the City, as well as over 300 much-needed new homes, many of them made available for affordable rent and for shared ownership to allow local people to get on the housing ladder in an affordable way.”

Paul Cushing of R G Carter said: “We are excited to reach this important and final milestone at the Canary Quay development.  It’s been a real pleasure to work with the Broadland Housing Association team and support their vision for regeneration and transformation in Norwich.

“We want to thank everyone who has played a role in getting us to this moment in the project and look forward to handing over the development in the coming months.”

The apartments in phase 4 of Canary Quay will be marketed shortly, with residents expected to move in starting spring 2023.