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. 

The Nelson Hotel in Norwich is set to be demolished (Image: Whitbread)

Another drawing of the design (Image: Whitbread)

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........

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