From Barclays and Blockbuster to Domino’s and Wetherspoons: Thetford’s changing landscape since 2009
My hometown of Thetford has changed in so many ways over the years, so here are just 10 places that have changed in the town since 2009.
Using Google Street View, I have looked back at several places to see what was there back in 2009 and 2010 and what is there now.
To see which businesses have come and gone as well as some developments that have shaped the landscape of the place I call home forever.
MULTI-MILLION POUND DEVELOPMENTS
The £8million Thetford Riverside, in Bridge Street, which opened in 2017 stands on the site where a piece of an iconic BBC show was filmed – Dad’s Army.
The Anchor Hotel, which closed in 2006, featured in the very first scene of the hit TV show and was a popular watering hole with the cast and crew when they were filming in and around the town in the 1960s and 1970s.
Behind The Anchor Hotel was the town’s bus station, but with the new development going in Breckland Council needed to find a new place for it to go.
The £3.9million Thetford Bus Interchange in Minstergate, opened in March 2015.
A TALE OF TWO BANKS
The Thetford branch of Barclays, in Bridge Street, closed its doors on November 2, 2022, and looking at the newest image, is still vacant.
But the same can not be said for the old HSBC building in King Street, which finished its business there in December 2020.
In November this year, adult gaming company Merkur Slots UK opened a new £200,000 entertainment centre in the site, creating 10 new jobs.
BRANDS AND BUILDING WORK FOR PUBS
The 18th century King’s Head in Whitehart Street, which was a Grade II-listed public house, closed in 2017.
Although developers were given approval by Breckland Council to convert the site into flats in 2018, this has not come to fruition yet.
The Red Lion in Market Place, which had closed in late 2010 was opened as a Wetherspoons in July 2012, and has been pulling pints ever since.
IT’S A BLOCKBUSTER
Remember renting a video as a Friday night treat or at the weekend? In Thetford, the place to go was Blockbuster Video in Castle Street.
But by the time the company, which had branches in 25 countries across the world, closed all its UK branches in December 2013, this one had long gone.
Now it is home to the Patio das Cantigas, a Portuguese supermarket and butchers.
FOOD AND SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE
In 2019, it was announced that the Candy Shop in Station Road was closing.
The shop, which had been selling sweet treats to children and parents alike since it opened in the 1950s, was set to be demolished, rebuilt, have flats above it and parking spaces – but this has not happened yet.
This next site, in Lime Kiln Lane, has gone from tyres to tandoori.
Central Tyres was on the site until 2018 and now the unit belongs to Cinnamon Indian Restaurant and Takeaway, who celebrated its one-year anniversary in November this year.
AND FINALLY, ANYONE FOR PIZZA?
This Well Street unit was vacant back in 2009, 2010 and the early part of 2011, before the king of the crusts, Domino’s, moved in to take a piece of the takeaway pie in the town.
With things such as the Kingsfleet development continuing to grow on the outskirts of the town and a new retirement development going up at the former Deer’s Leap / Ark pub site in Norwich Road, it is safe to say that Thetford is not slowing down in changing how it looks in the future anytime soon.
