Norwich's city skyline to change forever
Councillors approved plans for a huge new hotel and student development to replace one of the city's most recognisable buildings
Last updated 10th Jul 2026
Norwich’s skyline is about to change forever after councillors approved plans for a huge new hotel and student development to replace one of the city’s most recognisable buildings.
Whitbread has been granted permission to bulldoze the Nelson Hotel Premier Inn on Prince of Wales Road and replace it with a 248-room hotel and 492 student flats.
The scheme will also open up the riverside area, add around 75 homes near Mountergate and create a new public park where the hotel’s private garden currently is.
Planners say the new buildings – which include seven storey sections – will climb closer to double the height of the existing hotel, transforming the view greeting rail passengers arriving across the Wensum at Norwich Railway Station.
The plans were first drawn up around seven years ago, with the design intended to improve first impressions for the roughly three quarters of a million visitors who arrive in the city by train each year.
The building, constructed in 1971 to replace the Old Great Eastern Hotel demolished in 1963, has existed on the site for more than a century.
After a three-and-a-half hour meeting in a stuffy City Hall, councillors approved the scheme almost unanimously – with just one abstention – despite a number of objections.
A significant concern came from the University of East Anglia, which had questioned why Norwich needs more student beds when thousands already sit empty.
The UEA said there were already 6,349 bedspaces in the city but estimated this would increase to more than 9,000 in the coming years amid a growing surge in applications for student flats.
The spokesman at the meeting added that Whitbread had “failed to engage” with the university.
Another sticking point was the fact there were no affordable housing included in the designs.
Officers – who were advised to approve the plans – said including social housing would have meant the scheme would not have been able to turn a profit.
Locals had also objected to the loss of mature trees, calling for Tree Preservation Orders. The scheme is set to fell 38 trees and eight tree groups, replacing them with just 114 saplings.
Historic England recommended the hotel be cut to four storeys on the side facing Prince of Wales Road and the student blocks reduced to five, warning the height was “out of character”.
These concerns were also echoed by the Norwich Society.
The Broads Authority went further, branding the scheme “over-bearing” and of “excessive height”.
However officers had recommended approval because the council’s housing land supply currently sits marginally below the five-year target.
Following the approval, Richard Pearson, the senior development manager for Whitbread, said: “This approval is a major milestone for Norwich and for Whitbread. The redevelopment will transform an ageing hotel into a new mixed-use destination which combines new high-quality hotel and living accommodation and public spaces in one of the city’s most important locations."
“The scheme represents a significant long-term investment by Whitbread in Norwich city centre and forms part of our strategy to reinvest in our key gateway locations across the UK – taking advantage of our ability to deliver comprehensive, high-returning redevelopments on well-positioned, central locations that we own.”