Residents and visitors are asked to complete a short survey to help bolster a major funding bid to The National Lottery Heritage Fund to save and revive Great Yarmouth’s Winter Gardens.
The Grade II*-listed landmark is a national heritage gem, the UK’s last surviving Victorian seaside cast iron and glass winter gardens, and it requires significant national investment to repair and restore, supported by a robust business plan for re-use.
With the project among only 12 shortlisted nationally to apply to the Heritage Horizons Awards scheme, Great Yarmouth Borough Council is working with conservation specialists and a preferred operator to finalise the application to the first stage of this very competitive multi-stage national funding pot.
The ambition is to save, restore and reimagine the Winter Gardens at the heart of Great Yarmouth’s regeneration and daily life, as a year-round visitor attraction that makes the most of the unique building, its seafront location and its horticultural heritage, complementing the recently-restored Venetian Waterways and the new Marina Centre under construction.
To support their application for development funding, the project team is undertaking a survey to find out a bit more about what residents and visitors might want to see and do in the restored Winter Gardens, the sorts of activities, functions and attractions it could be used for.
People can take part until January 15th, 2021 at www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/
Cllr Carl Smith and Cllr Trevor Wainwright, leaders of the council’s main political groups, said: “Significant work is progressing behind the scenes to realise the community’s dream of bringing our much-loved Winter Gardens back into viable and suitable use, including business case development, architectural work and exploring further funding opportunities.
“We’re at the start of a competitive multi-stage application process for the major national investment needed. Vital work is continuing to ensure we’re in the best possible position against stiff competition and we’re asking you to help bolster our chances as a community by completing our activities survey.
“Imagine yourself in a restored Winter Gardens in a few years’ time. What would be in it? What would you be doing? Perhaps you’d be enjoying a meal with family or socialising with friends, admiring the architecture and planting, maybe enjoying an event, exploring the history of the building, learning new skills, or perhaps volunteering and sharing your own skills and memories. The project team will feed back your views and ideas into our design process, so everyone’s feedback is important.”
Seven of Great Yarmouth’s most iconic buildings will be put in the spotlight from this weekend.
The borough council will flick the switch on new lighting on the Town Hall, St George’s Theatre, the Tolhouse, the Minster Church of St Nicholas, the Arc Cinema at the Royalty, the North West Tower, and Gorleston Pavilion.
The collection includes five listed buildings and a scheduled monument, with all the buildings representing a special place in the town’s history and cultural life.
They will all be bathed in new energy-efficient LED lighting, focusing on the impressive architecture which has seen many of them given legal protection from changes. From spring next year, the council plans to launch a second phase of lighting which will see specially commissioned illustrations projected on to the buildings in a series of light trails.
Designed by the prestigious Great Yarmouth Borough Architect J. W. Cockerill back in 1888, refurbishment works on the dilapidated building which was once the ticket office at Wellesley Recreation Ground are now complete.
The work, which was was carried out by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust, was funded by a grant from Coastal Revival Fund awarded to the Wellesley project in 2018. The Coastal Revival Fund supports projects which help revive heritage assets that are important to local communities but have not yet reached their full potential or are facing neglect.
Situated to the south west corner of the recreation ground adjacent to the gate on the corner of Wellesley Road and Albermarle Road, the building had suffered extensive rot after falling into a state of disrepair once it was no longer used.
Live music and a virtual reality experience are just some of the additional attractions for this year’s Christmas in The Parks events in Great Yarmouth and Gorleston.
Dozens of stalls will make up Christmas markets on the two sites, offering plenty of opportunities for festive shopping, alongside a selection of food and drink vendors to help make the market’s a treat to visit in themselves.
Now Great Yarmouth Borough Council has unveiled more attractions to keep the whole family entertained.
The newly opened Yare Gallery, on Great Yarmouth’s historic South Quay overlooking the river, opens this week (Friday) with an amazing collection of circus paintings and artefacts from famous artists, many of whom are Norfolk and Suffolk based and internationally known painters of circus subjects – Bruer Tidman, has been painting the Hippodrome circus since 1984, and has over a dozen paintings in the show.
Colin Self an English Pop Artist who has over 30 works in the Tate, will have 6 of his clowns on display and a series of circus themed sculptures created from tin cans , Will Teather a leading figurative artist will have one of his famous spheres and a series of circus paintings, Mark Burrell, a Lowestoft based realist painter who tells great stories through his paintings and Peter Rodulfo, living in Great Yarmouth but who has travelled and exhibited across the world, plus a host of local and national artists who have embraced the theme of CIRCUS for our winter art exhibition.
We also have a display of children’s artworks from a competition held to coincide with this event. With additional props from the Hippodrome Circus here in Great Yarmouth, our entire 3 storey 17th Century Merchants House is a feast for the eyes.
Exhibition will be on from 12 November 2021 – 13 January 2022 and we will be open Tuesday to Saturday 11-5 (last entry 4.30) this free to enter art gallery on the east coast of England is a must visit. With parking available and just a short stroll from the train station. Opening in early summer this year, this is The Yare Gallery’s 4th exhibition and promises a cornucopia of delights for all tastes and pockets – much like the Hippodrome itself.
If you wrap up warm and embrace the fresh North Sea breeze, the rolling sands of North Denes offer up its own barren beauty to brighten the shorter days of winter. This quiet spot, washed in salty mists and dotted with tussocks of marram grass, is a favourite with dog walkers and adventurers who want to get the most out of their day.
Be the first to greet the morning by heading down to the beach before sunlight. If you want to take breakfast with you, a flask of coffee and Pastéis de Nata from one of Great Yarmouth’s Portuguese stores makes a fine treat.
Nestle down in the shelter of the dunes and watch the sun as it rises up and over the sea, full of promise for the new day.