Three containers at St Saviour's Yard now house mental health assessment, alcohol support and debt advice for NR3. The pilot runs until February 2027.

Three shipping containers at St Saviour’s Yard have started running NHS and council health services for the NR3 area of Norwich, in a pilot that will last until February 2027.

Norfolk County Council announced the launch on 1 September, and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust published the same account on its own site. Both accounts, published on Tuesday 1 September, say the service started “this week”.

What the three containers do

The council lists three things the units will deliver to begin with:

  • alcohol support, including drop-in support, run by Change Grow Live
  • mental health assessment, run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
  • social care, housing and debt advice, including adult social services from Norfolk County Council
The three St Saviour's Yard containers and the service each one delivers
What each of the three containers is for, and who runs it. Graphic by The Norwich Times.

Other local organisations are involved alongside those three. The partnership is led by the NHS trust, and the county council names Change Grow Live and its own adult social services among the providers.

It is not a walk-in centre

This matters, because a health service that looks like a clinic on a high street will get people turning up at the door.

The council is explicit that the containers are not for emergencies and are not generally a walk-in service. Residents are invited to appointments through the usual routes, meaning a referral or a booking rather than arriving unannounced. The exception named in the announcement is the alcohol support, which is described as drop-in and which Change Grow Live says will run at the yard every week.

Who is paying for it

The local NHS has funded both the lease on the three containers and the set-up costs. The containers are leased from Meanwhile Creative, which operates St Saviour’s Yard.

Norfolk County Council frames the pilot as a test that other places could copy. Partners, it says, “will look to replicate this innovative approach across Norfolk”.

Mark Burgis, executive director of primary care and neighbourhood health for Norfolk and Waveney at the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board, credited community engagement led by Shoebox Enterprises CIC with shaping the model.

Andy Mack, deputy chief operating officer at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said the project should “reduce missed appointments and assessments” by bringing mental health support closer to home in north Norwich.

The Anglia Square connection

St Saviour’s Yard exists because of the Anglia Square redevelopment. Both the county council and the NHS trust describe the health project as a direct result of it.

Councillor Lucy Galvin, leader of Norwich City Council, called it “a helpful outcome of our on-going redevelopment of Anglia Square”.

The yard itself is a container site about half a mile from the city centre, run by Meanwhile Creative, which describes it as a hub for independent traders, artists and makers. Its own site says the yard will be made up of more than 80 repurposed shipping containers, and lists site opening hours of 7am to 9pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 6pm on Sunday, with each business setting its own times.

Demolition at Anglia Square itself is still going on. In June the city council reported a delay after further asbestos was found in the QD building, and said nesting gulls in the Pitt Street area had affected the timing of some work. Our Norwich planning news page tracks what is decided next on the site.

What it means for you

If you live in NR3 and one of these services is relevant to you, the practical point is that the containers are an extra location, not a new front door. You still go through the existing service.

  • Alcohol or drug support. Change Grow Live runs the Norfolk Alcohol and Drug Behaviour Change Service. Its Norwich hub is at Adobe House, 5 Barton Way, NR1 1DL, and its phone line is 01603 514096, option 1 for Norwich, open 8am to 8pm every day. The hub’s own drop-in sessions run on Mondays and Thursdays.
  • Mental health. Assessments at the yard are run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Access is through the trust’s usual routes, not by turning up.
  • Housing, debt and social care advice. Adult social services from Norfolk County Council are among the providers, alongside housing and debt advice.
  • In an emergency, the containers are not the place to go. Use 999, or NHS 111 for urgent medical help that is not life-threatening.

The pilot is scheduled to run until February 2027, so what happens after that will depend on what the partnership decides in the meantime.