Here’s that rare event, good news relating to an inter-war building in Norfolk. As both the EDP and the BBC have reported, the Iron Duke public house in Great Yarmouth has, after a sustained campaign by local residents, been awarded a Grade II listing by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The playful seaside building, built in the late 1930s and finally completed in 1948, has stood empty for several years now, and was thought to be in danger of demolition. Fortunately, it has at least two things going for it.

One is its architectural interest. As a spokesperson for Historic England put it, ‘The Iron Duke’s Art Deco style, with its distinctive massing, curved frontages and flat roofs, is visually striking and architectural elements such as the fluted columns are unusual and quirky.’

One might pause to wonder why, when it comes to preserving our generally under-appreciated inter-war public buildings, ‘unusual and quirky’ is invariably given priority over ‘characteristic and well-integrated’, but let’s pass over that for a moment, thrilled as we are with the decision to protect this pleasing structure. Continue reading “Close run thing: 1930s Norfolk pub receives Grade II listing” →

In its current state — threatened with demolition, and awaiting the judgement of the High Court at the end of this month regarding its future — Blakeney’s former Rectory looks rather neglected and unloved. Of course, in truth, it is very dearly loved by many local people, both for its important role in the history of our village, and also for its handsome, old-fashioned, agreeably mellow presence, fitting in so gracefully with the buildings and landscape surrounding it.

All the same, it might be worth remembering how the New Rectory looked before the Church of England took the bizarre decision to replace its attractive leaded windows with U-PvC ones a few decades ago — indeed, how it looked when it was built in 1925, because other than the removal of its windows, it has changed hardly at all over its 90-something years of existence. Continue reading “Blakeney New Rectory: what it was and could be again” →

Windfarms, for better or worse, are now a part of everyday life on the North Norfolk coast. The view north from the crest of that ridge near Kettle Hill, as one drives towards Blakeney on the Langham Road, is now as much about the distant ghostly towers of Sheringham Shoals as it is about the marsh, the sea, the sky.

Of course, there is a lot to be said for wind power — it reduces reliance on fossil fuels, as a technology it is constantly improving, while to a limited extent, at least, windfarms have provided a boost to the local economy. But at the same time, it cannot be denied that, even now, they have had a profound impact upon the appearance, and possibly the natural environment, of our own remarkable Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

In recent weeks, details relating to Dong Energy’s proposed Hornsea Three project have started to trouble many in North Norfolk. That this is the case is due in large part to the vigilance and hard work of Godfrey Sayers and the Friends of North Norfolk.

Although the proposed windfarm, apparently the largest in the world, is proposed to be built off the Yorkshire coast, it will ‘come ashore’ at Weybourne.

Rather bizarrely, such projects are not required to specify whether they are pursuing an AC or DC option until after planning consent has been granted. Mr Sayers has been untiring in his efforts to draw attention to the effects, in particular, of the proposed HVAC option, which would involve both large land-based booster stations and extensive cabling. These would, he rightly argues, have a profound and negative effect on the North Norfolk coast. The HVDC option, in contrast, would be considerably less intrusive.

Mr Sayers has asked that anyone who feels that the HVAC option, with its accompanying disruption to lives and landscape, should be rejected in favour of the HVDC option, which would not require booster stations or extensive cabling, should make their views known at the following address:

contact@hornsea-project-three.co.uk

At NNPW, we very much welcome Mr Sayer’s efforts to hold to account both the planners who are meant to be looking after our interests, and also commercial parties who may otherwise not fully understand the significance of our beautiful and unique part of the world, or the extent of local people’s feelings regarding it.H

We have long known the danger that glass façades present to anything with wings, so definitively pinned down in the opening lines of Vladimir Nabokov’s great Pale Fire:

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane
I was the smudge of ashen fluff — and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky […]

What is far less well known, however, is the perils that huge expanses of reflective surfaces present specifically to bats, creatures which exist in abundant variety along our North Norfolk coast.

Recently, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft — Germany’s internationally-respected research and science organisation — published a fascinating report on the way in which large areas of glass affect bats’ ecolocation abilities. A summary of the report is presented here.

It appears that bats are hard-wired to interpret large, smooth vertical surfaces not as barriers, but as open flyways. This is particularly true when bats are in a hurry or under stress, as at such moments they are forced to interpret their own ecolocation data in a more cursory way. The danger this poses is obvious. Continue reading “Clear danger for bats” →

We have previously referred to the proposed demolition of the former Rectory at 8 Wiveton Road, Blakeney, Norfolk.

Following the obtaining of legal advice, we have filed an Application with the Administrative Court seeking Judicial Review of North Norfolk District Council’s decision to grant permission for the demolition of Blakeney Rectory and the erection of a replacement dwelling.

Permission to pursue the Application to a full hearing was given by the Honourable Mr Justice Collins towards the end of May, and the full Judicial Review hearing will take place in the High Court on 29th November 2017.

We will post further developments on this website as they occur.

The derelict Shannocks Hotel at the clifftop end of Sheringham’s High Street is, to be kind, an eyesore. With its tragic blind windows, flaking blue paint and generalised air of neglect, underfunding and hopelessness, the message it sends to the world regarding the north Norfolk coast is hardly an encouraging one. Quite clearly, something needs to be done about it.

Yet it is a source of concern — and a rather familiar concern, too — that the first instinct of the North Norfolk District Council is not to seek the renovation of the existing structure, sited within a conservation area, but rather to demolish the whole thing (including the greatly-cherished carpark attached to it) and develop the site. NNDC’s plan, apparently, is to replace the existing hotel with 10 two-bedroom flats, four commercial units and a first-floor restaurant.

NNDC have set aside £500,000 for a compulsory purchase from the developers who own the site at present if they fail to act. Meanwhile, the previous owners have expressed a desire to buy back the hotel, and to run it as a hotel. Yet the NNDC carry on, regardless.

I have not been able to discover the date of the Shannocks Hotel. (For anyone not local, ‘Shannocks’ is simply what people from Sheringham call themselves.) To our eagle-eyed team at NNPW, the building looks Edwardian, albeit with a recent injection of the egregious uPVC replacement windows that blight so much in our world today — in particular, blinding the easily-confused to the actual age of the structure.

And yet even in recent newspaper photos of the discouraged-looking site, e.g. here, the Shannocks Hotel, in a very prominent, cliff-top location, still throws up an impressive outline. Its extremely traditional, red-pantiled roof signals ‘north Norfolk’ as clearly as anything could. Its outline, more than anything, speaks to Sheringham’s fabled history as a Poppyland holiday town. Dereliction aside, it looks like Sheringham.

Alas, the NNDC is, however, seemingly oblivious to 20th century architecture. Let’s see what the current edition of Pevsner (2nd ed, 1997) has to say about Sheringham, shall we?

“The place was chiefly developed in the 1890s and early C20, i.e. it looks very much more cheerful and civilised than, say, Hunstanton, which was built in the 1860s and 70s.”

So, in the eyes of the UK’s premier architectural guide, the early 20th century is a key part of what gives Sheringham its distinctive — and, in this case, ‘cheerful and civilised’ — look. Let’s remember, too, that what the Pevsner guide references here isn’t important, individual set-piece edifices — it is the general, generic look of the town. So to demolish one of these mainstream, early 20th century buildings, especially in such a prominent and sensitive location, is to alter the look of Sheringham itself.

Certainly, it is not a thing that should be done casually. Possibly, it is not a thing that should be done at all.

What, however, do the NNDC propose by way of a replacement? The local press provides computer-generated images, e.g. here. Designed by Lucas Hickman Smith, a firm that has completed some strong work in Norfolk, including impressive projects related to listed buildings, the replacement structure — with its grey roof, glass balconies and whimsical yellow panels — does not seem keen to establish any very obvious bonds with the locality. It could be any building, anywhere in the UK, built on the specified budget by public clients of rather limited aspirations. We struggle to see how it connects with Sheringham, other than by showing indifference towards its history, its traditions — towards Sheringham’s ineffable, refined, definitely-not-Yarmouth-or-Hunstanton-either-thanks character.

Also, it is not by any stretch of the imagination cutting-edge contemporary architecture. It is patently the fruit of the 1980s, harvested late, dumped in a provincial seaside town that apparently doesn’t know any better.

We find it sad that there is nowhere, online, a strong defense of the existing hotel, spelling out its history, its architectural background, its relationships with the world around it. But we partially blame this gap on NNDC. Why on earth are local conservation bodies not more alert to the significance of historic local buildings? Why should  excellent but overstretched organisations like SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the C20 Society have to do all the heavy lifting? Should we not have an actual statutory conservation body, with both real teeth and real architectural knowledge, willing and able to fight for our built environment?

Remember, too, the all-too-obvious point that frequently eludes Norfolk planners — if we don’t preserve a few 80, 90 and 100-year old buildings, in time, the 200, 300 and 500-year old buildings are going to be a bit thin on the ground.

As mentioned above, the present state of Shannocks Hotel is not acceptable. We understand the impatience shown by NNDC when it comes to the improvement of the present site.

What NNPW will never accept, however, is NNDC’s default retreat to demolition, and redevelopment, as our go-to option.

The North Norfolk coast is special. It is beautiful, strange, stirring, compelling and unique. There is nothing like it on earth. It doesn’t suit everyone, true, but to those who warm to it, nothing on earth compares with it. This is not just the fruit of its natural beauty, either, although that is a part of it — it is a fruit of its unique, evolved, distinctive character. NNDC, with its tin ear for the built environment, and its total blind spot regarding 20th century buildings, ignores this at its peril. If you make our magical and historic coastline just like anywhere else, why will anyone come here to visit it? And who wants to live in some identikit flat above an unwanted identikit restaurant?

Let us picture, instead, a happier future for the Shannocks Hotel. Perhaps someone will buy it who actually likes and understands it. They will do up the existing building, playing on its existing strengths rather than pulling against them.

Perhaps they will, for instance, play up to the early 20th century history, installing Bakelite light-switches, traditional sanitary ware, historic decorating schemes — remembering, as they do so, the great success of the revived Poppy Line. The carpark, much valued by actual Shannocks, will endure. Meanwhile, Sheringham will get to work marketing itself as the beautiful historic seaside town it already is. It will embrace its history, rather than seeking to obliterate it under a sea of unsympathetic, reflexive modern development.

The north Norfolk coast faces many threats, but among them, obliviousness to the importance of early and mid 20th century building is a major threat. Put bluntly, people visit this place, love it, come to live here, because of how it looks right now. And much of north Norfolk’s built environment is rooted in the early to mid 20th century. Obliterate that under a sea of unsympathetic, ill-thought-out, budget-led contemporary building, and the spell is broken.

This isn’t to say that really first-rate, well-thought-out, sympathetic contemporary architecture doesn’t have a role to play. Of course it does, especially on green-field sites. But as for destroying what will, in another few hundred years, be incredibly important, listed, historic evidence of our distinctive local appearance — that is a disaster. A Norfolk that looks like the rest of the world is, let’s face it, like the rest of the world.

Is that really what you want, NNDC?

 

 

 

In a not very surprising move, North Norfolk District councillors have voted to approve controversial and frankly pretty unattractive developments in Wells and Fakenham. The EDP has the story here:

‘It’s a monstrosity’: development plans for Wells, Fakenham