Lowestoft: Heritage led regeneration

Lowestoft has two Heritage Action Zones (HAZs). The first began in 2018 and is in the north of the town encompassing the North Lowestoft Conservation Area with its medieval High Street and Scores, Triangle Market, the former fishing village and three parks: Sparrows Nest, Bellevue Park and Ness Park, the UK’s most easterly park.

In 2020 the London Road South, Lowestoft Heritage Action Zone was launched and covers the Victorian town, the seaside resort, and the commercial area of Kirkley. The schemes are separated by only 500m, and Lowestoft is one of only seven places to benefit from two HAZs.

A HAZ is a heritage-led regeneration project. In Lowestoft they are funded by Historic England and East Suffolk Council, and delivered in partnership with Lowestoft Town Council, East Suffolk Building Preservation Trust and Lowestoft Vision.

Both schemes are working to secure lasting improvements to the historic environment and help breathe new life into the town’s shopping areas for the benefit of local communities and businesses.

Like many other towns across the UK, Lowestoft has experienced decline in recent years and is in need of investment and regeneration to help the town thrive and reach its full potential.

The London Road, Lowestoft HAZ and the North Lowestoft HAZ will make the Conservation Areas vibrant places in which to live, work and visit. The schemes encourage sympathetic and sustainable improvements to the built environment, using architectural evidence and historic records to repair, restore and reinstate original details to improve the character and appearance of the area. The schemes aim for communities to have pride in place and be actively engaged in the area’s protection and regeneration. A varied cultural programme of events, activities and exhibitions are also provided across the Heritage Action Zones, providing more reasons to visit these areas and share the history and culture of the town with the local community, as well as tourists.

Protecting historic buildings

The HAZ team works with local businesses and property owners to repair and restore historic buildings in the HAZ areas, which are suffering from physical degradation such as a loss of architectural features, poor quality shop fronts and unsympathetic repairs or alterations.

To boost regeneration, conservation grants are available for building repairs which will improve the appearance of the conservation areas, and the reinstatement of lost architectural features. By 2024, over £1 million of capital investment will be spent on improvements to buildings in the HAZs.

In 2020, the Council adopted the North Lowestoft HAZ Design Guide as a Supplementary Planning Document which helps determine planning applications for new development and helps facilitate the delivery of high-quality design in the HAZ area. Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans have also been updated for both of the Lowestoft Conservation Areas, and Masterplans have been produced for South Lowestoft and the Seafront, as well as Scores and Triangle Market. Although much of the outputs of the Masterplans will be brought forward after the life of the HAZ schemes, these documents, along with the SPDs and Conservation Area Appraisals ensure the principles of heritage led regeneration continue beyond the HAZ schemes themselves.

The HAZ partnership is also working hard to bring vacant and ‘at risk’ buildings back into use as housing or retail spaces and enhance the quality and connections for the historic streets and public spaces.

One of the most prominent buildings in the North Lowestoft HAZ is the former Town Hall, located on the Historic High Street. The Town Hall building has been vacant since 2017 and is a key project within the North Lowestoft HAZ and has the potential to support local regeneration. The overall aim is to restore the Grade II listed building which will become a heritage hub, gallery, event space, café and offices for Lowestoft Town Council and registrar.

Through the HAZ partnership, Lowestoft Town Council has successfully attracted both Architectural Heritage Fund and National Lottery Heritage Fund development funding to progress the project, alongside securing Towns Fund investment.

The flagship scheme in the London Road, Lowestoft HAZ is conservation repairs to the Grade II listed former Post Office, purchased by East Suffolk Council in 2017. The building suffered from a series of unsympathetic alterations during the 20th century, including re-roofing with asbestos tiles, replacing the ground floor timber sashes with aluminium windows, removing the original entrance door and relocating it to the side of the façade. Funding was made available through the HAZ and Towns Fund to reverse these inappropriate alterations.

The funding has allowed the roof to be reinstated with natural Welsh slates and the ground floor fenestration restored to its original appearance. A detailed schedule of repairs to the external fabric of the building has also been completed, including replacing heavily weathered balusters at the parapet, timber repairs to the roof structure, repairs to the chimneys including some replacement of stone, and renewing leadwork and rainwater goods.

Specialist conservators have also completed air lime repointing, consolidation, and mortar repairs to the façade, as well as the removal of algae, lichens, sulphation crusts, dirt, and a linseed oil surface coating to conserve the fabric of the building. These works will return the building to a watertight and restored condition which will enable the conversion of the entire site to take place from 2023.

The North Lowestoft HAZ is due to end in March 2023 and the London Road, Lowestoft HAZ ends in March 2024 as such options are being explored for future project sustainability.

Green spaces

Completed in 2020, a key green space in the North Lowestoft HAZ is the Ness, the UK’s most easterly park. The Ness is a visitor destination that celebrates the culture and heritage of its location, through landscaping, play area and onsite digital activity. It has transformed a semi-derelict green space and seafront promenade into an events and cultural heritage space.

The London Road, Lowestoft HAZ has worked with a local community group to set up Kirkley Pocket Parks Group (KPPG). KPPG work on green areas of South Lowestoft and have used funding from the HAZ to purchase street planters. They are also working on creating a pocket park on the site of a piece of derelict land around an electricity substation.

As part of the Towns Fund and Town Investment Plan, funding has been earmarked for the restoration of the historic Scores and public realm enhancements to a number of Scores along the High Street which will help improve connectivity to the historic parks and the Ness.  Concept plans were produced in 2021 and the Council will be progressing the project over the next 12 months.  

The HAZ partnership also works closely with the Council’s waste operator to help maintain public spaces in the Heritage Action Zones.

Small business support

Throughout the pandemic, the HAZ team supported local High Street businesses, by providing social distancing materials, supported by the Government’s Reopening High Streets Safely Fund. The team also ensured that businesses were kept up to date with government announcements regarding funding and ways to access it. The HAZ team check in regularly with business owners and are actively engaged with the Most Easterly Community Group and Kirkley Independent Traders. Signposting to other services is provided and small business initiatives (e.g. Totally Locally) are promoted through the Lowestoft HAZ social media channels.

As part of the digital response to the pandemic, video poems were commissioned for each of the Heritage Action Zones. Stories and memories were shared by the local community, and those recollections were used to create a narrative for the poems, and local people and shop keepers were also featured in the videos to promote local businesses and community spirit during the pandemic. Right Up Your Street was created for the North Lowestoft HAZ, and Spread a Little Kirkleyness for the London Road, Lowestoft HAZ.

Cultural Programme

The North Lowestoft HAZ has delivered an array of cultural engagement since the project’s inception in 2018. This included a project in 2019 with a nearby secondary school to exhibit GCSE art from Year 10 and 11 students in an empty shop, attracting over 400 visitors. In 2021, Waveney and Blyth Valley Arts led a walking tour and created a digital download version, and a local historian led a series of ghostly walks as part of the Heritage Open Days programme. Funding has been secured to continue work with a local historian to create a schools’ resource which will explore the history of the buildings on the historic high street.

The London Road, Lowestoft Heritage Action Zone was awarded £90,000 of funding from Historic England to spend on cultural activities to make high streets more vibrant places to visit and is being delivered by local cultural organisations. We have taken streets back in time to the 1940s and have upcoming events celebrating the 1960s and 1980s. Using the shopping area as an event space for cultural and heritage experiences promotes activity in shopping areas and has proven to benefit the local economy, with independent businesses receiving more shoppers during events, as well as return visits following activities.

A project marking the 175^th anniversary of the railway coming to Lowestoft through a research exhibition, performers and local volunteers has been a huge success. The HAZs have many more exciting events coming up in 2023 and 2024, including using the theme of postcards for an art trail across the town, a project celebrating the significance of the Post Office to the town, and work will take place with local schools to develop a new piece of theatre commemorating the 1953 and 2013 floods and resilience of the local community.

Lowestoft is a place with heritage at its heart, and the Heritage Action Zones are fantastic schemes which protect and celebrate the rich architecture, history and culture of the town, set the precedent for future development and work with the local community to deliver schemes with a legacy.

You can keep up to date with the progress of the Lowestoft Heritage Action Zones, as well as upcoming events by following ‘Lowestoft HAZ’ on social media and the Think Lowestoft website.

• North Lowestoft HAZ
• London Road HSHAZ

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