Man builds University of East Anglia halls out of Lego

A former university student who did not have many photos of his campus accommodation decided to recreate it in Lego.

Mark Hodgson, 62, who graduated from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1983, built Waveney Terrace in honour of the "tremendous time" he had there.

He used about 1,000 pieces of Lego to create the student housing block which was demolished in 2005.

The build sparked comments on social media about student life pre-2000.

"Norwich and UEA were a large part of my life for quite a while, but looking back, I've got very few photographs of it," he said.

"Photographs back then were expensive. Film was expensive. So you took photographs of holidays, but not necessarily where you were living."

Mr Hodgson, who now lives in Wimborne, Dorset, studied computer science at the Norwich university.

In 2022, he found two or three photographs of his study bedroom, and a Waveney Terrace alumni group provided a few more exterior images, which he used to build his Lego replica.

"It was really a memory exercise to try and get back the photographs I hadn't taken at the time," he said.

He previously built replicas of the iconic Ziggurats accommodation - Suffolk Terrace and Norfolk Terrace - at the UEA.

Photos of his Lego creation sparked more than 100 comments on social media and former students wrote about Norwich life in the 1980s and 1990s.

One comment said: "Norfolk Terrace, where I spent a happy year sharing a 'room at the top' with my (then) husband as a pair of star-crossed lovers."

Another former student posted: "Love it! Just need to build some Lego Ziggurats with students hanging off the balconies at 2am!"

One person wrote: "These were the best rooms on campus. Pity they demolished them."

Mr Hodgson said he had received offers to sell his replicas.

"I built it for me and my memories," he added.

"It wasn't a commission and I won't be parting with it."

A UEA spokesperson: "It's great to see nostalgia for our campus buildings, particularly during our 60th year, and we love the way that Mark's recreated a big part of UEA history in Lego form."

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