Published:
4:15 PM March 16, 2022
A large unit in a busy city shopping street is set to fall empty after a gallery announced it is moving on.
Castle Fine Art currently occupies the 1,300sqft store at 13 Back of the Inns.
The exclusive gallery has now confirmed it is moving to a larger spot nearby.
And with the area bouncing back as new tenants flock to the nearby Royal Arcade, the team marketing the soon-to-be vacant unit are sure they will find a tenant for the £45,000-a-year site.
Katie Bates, commercial surveyor at Brown and Co, said: “We are pleased to be marketing 13 Back Of The Inns, a prime retail pitch in Norwich city centre.
Katie Bates, commercial surveyor at Brown and Co
- Credit: Angela Adams Photography
“The property is prominently positioned directly opposite The Royal Arcade, offering large display windows and an open-plan internal layout.
“The premises would be suitable for a number of retail and leisure uses.
“Back of the Inns comprises part of the busy thoroughfare between White Lion Street and London Street, where we have seen several recent lettings to national occupiers demonstrating a strong level of demand for properties in this location.”
The modern open-plan unit at 13 Back of the Inns has wooden floors with a small staff area and storeroom at the rear
- Credit: Brown and Co
The gallery will be moving to the former Joules site at 21 Castle Street in late summer - a venue three times the size of their current premises.
Castle Fine Art’s expansion comes as Norwich city centre - including the Royal Arcade - has seen a recent influx of retailers taking up space.
Lauren Rose Interior Design has recently moved to Unit 5 Royal Arcade, with Gyre and Gimble setting up its gin-making academy next door in July.
13 Back Of The Inns, the current home of Castle Fine Art
- Credit: Brown and Co
This summer will also see the former Jamie’s Italian site - The Arcade’s largest empty unit - undergo a £1.5m refit, opening to a range of independent food and retail stalls.
In 2019, 15 of the Royal Arcade’s 24 units were empty, but in the last 12 months the arcade saw 1.7 million shoppers pass through - a huge 85pc leap from the previous year.
The Royal Arcade was designed at the end of the 19th century by George Skipper, the great Norwich architect also responsible for the Jarrold building and the Norwich Union - now Aviva - headquarters in Surrey Street.
