Due to its location, the people of Cromer saw the promenade as a vital section of the scheme in terms of the amount of use the area gets
Enhancing Cromer seafront has been the focus of a £6.1 million investment programme by North Norfolk District Council involving refurbishing Cromer Pier and Pier Pavilion Theatre, regenerating the promenade and creating a new museum celebrating the 200 year history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Cromer – all powerful symbols of the town and its community.

We were involved in all three projects and for the promenade scheme we were also the lead landscape architect.

Challenging
The £1.8 million renovation of the Grade II listed pier – designed for a short construction programme over the winter months in a challenging environment – comprised an extension to the main entrance building consisting of two parallel structures detailed in the style of the Edwardian original, housing a shop and public toilets on the eastern side and a restaurant on the western side.

Within the Pavilion the auditorium was extensively reconfigured with side aisles, improved sight lines and a new 71 seat gallery. Front of house accommodation now comprises a revised and enlarged foyer, two new refreshment bars and new toilets.

In total the auditorium boasts 510 seats and is naturally ventilated using low height roof terminal that maximise the effect of the prevalent sea breeze. The system, modelled extensively using computational fluid dynamics, is a quiet, low energy solution, economic to operate and maintain, and does not impinge on the limited internal floor area. Designed to capture the wind from any direction, the incoming air is controlled by a damper system which modulates the rate of flow through integral quadrants. Electrical services included the relocation of the existing incoming supply and a new fire/voice alarm system. A new interior and exterior lighting scheme was provided throughout, utilising energy efficient lamp sources with occupancy detection control. Triple headed lighting columns were also installed to replicate the Edwardian style of the pier.

Vital
The design of the promenade was to create space which would draw users along it (Image © D Atfield) The aim of the promen-ade scheme was to en-hance the Victorian and Edwardian character of the area, to provide an environment which would entice people on-to the promenade and to tie the three sections of the overall programme together. Also, due to its location, the people of Cromer saw it as a vital section of the scheme in terms of the amount of use the area gets and its
popularity with tourists.

The promenade, which the design team inherited, was a long way from its Victorian and Edwardian grandeur. The area had more in common with a road than a promenade and on busy days the tourists ran the gauntlet of delivery trucks, coaches and cars. The main aim of the design was to win the space back for the pedestrians whilst improving the quality of the materials and street furniture used in the design and to create space along the promenade which would draw users along.

To achieve this, the design team produced a scheme which is based on the historical attachment Cromer has with the RNLI and its literary past, whilst resurfacing the area with a material other than the asphalt currently used.

Heritage
The design which links the scheme to Cromer’s lifeboat heritage was the focus of the pier forecourt area. Here a central compass feature, which is based on the compass in the museum lifeboat, formed the centre point of 24 radiating lines. These lines point towards the location of 27 of the most famous RNLI rescues undertaken by the Cromer boats, with information about these rescues inlaid into the granite lines in brass. The typography used for this information was designed as part of the arts project and will now only be used in Cromer itself. The aim of this design was not only to celebrate the 200 year history of the RNLI in Cromer, but to link through to the new exhibitions the RNLI plan to undertake in the new museum, making the scheme educational as well as informative.

Housing the Henry Blogg RNLI museum is the Rocket House – a 1000m² structure with a glass lift from the promenade to the cliff top, also providing a restaurant and public amenities. The curved shape of the building, the fact that none of the walls line up vertically and restrictions on planning meant that it was very tight on space, particularly where three storeys had to be fitted in. Strong co-ordination between the services, architecture and structure was critical to retaining clearance heights for access. Adding to the challenge was the requirement to facilitate three tenants (the RNLI museum, the restaurant and the Council) each requiring their own areas including separate toilets and lifts. Structurally, part of the cliff had to be excavated and held with a piled retaining wall. In addition, there were huge amounts of concrete in the ground to be demolished before the building could commence.

Sustainability was a key consideration for the building services design. The Rocket House is mostly naturally ventilated using cross ventilation within the museum. Conservation heating in the museum maintains constant humidity levels by varying the temperature within a band of 5°c and 22°c at which point the humidity control gives way to maintaining a minimum temperature for frost protection in very cold weather or a maximum temperature for comfort and energy efficiency reasons during the summer. In winter this keeps the air temperature lower than normal to help the humidity levels stay relatively higher and also saves energy.