Great Yarmouth Winter Gardens given £10m lottery funding

For 100 years the Winter Gardens was a main attraction on Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile. As the rusting "eyesore" on the seafront gets almost £10m from the lottery to restore and reopen it, BBC News asks locals what it means to them.

The Winter Gardens once echoed with big bands, the tinkling of teacups, the whirl of rollerskates and, years later, its glass would shake to the boom of live music and club nights.

But in 2008, the fun stopped. The Grade II-listed Victorian structure had fallen into disrepair and was closed down.

Too precious and too historically important to pull down, too expensive to restore, it languished on Historic England's at-risk register.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund boost will return the structure to a year-round attraction, with a botanic garden brimming with plants to reflect the town's historic trading links, restaurant and cafe areas, and a new first floor with galleries, viewing areas and education space.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council said it could now work "at pace" on its plans for the last surviving seaside Victorian cast iron and glass winter gardens in the country.

It said more than 90 jobs would be created in its catering operations and through partnerships with community and arts groups once the site opened.

Council leader Carl Smith (Conservative) said a total of £16m would be spent on restoring the building - which sits within one of the country's most deprived areas - with £5m taken from a recent Town Deal grant.

He said plans would now be drawn up for the council-owned property and work was expected to start in 2023, taking about three years.

"Within hopefully five years we will have a shining new attraction slap bang in the middle of the Golden Mile for residents and visitors alike," said Mr Smith.

"We want to make it a 12-month visitor economy.

"We are hugely grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and to National Lottery players for making this possible."

Chris Church, who runs the tea room at Merrivale Model Village, next door to the Winter Gardens, remembers visiting it with his parents, as a child.

"We used to spend a lot of time seeing big bands and to go to events there, back in the late 1970s," he says.

"It was a great, grand building."

In the past two decades, since its closure, it has become "very rusty", with panes of glass missing, he says.

"There's scaffolding on the inside to keep it safe, and stop it collapsing - it's quite sad when it such an iconic building."

He sounds genuinely thrilled at the lottery grant.

"I'm elated - it's great news for the town, because it's become an eyesore," he says.

"Everyone who comes down to Yarmouth for their holiday mentions the Winter Gardens and how they'd love to see it restored and brought back to its former glory."

"The Winter Gardens is, without a shadow of a doubt, the jewel in the crown of the seafront," says Caroline Jones.

"People were frustrated about it, because they cared and have such great memories, and it's supported because it's so loved.

"We're just so thrilled it's going to be restored, as we've been rooting for this for such a long time."

Ms Jones is from Save The Iron Duke, a group campaigning for a derelict art deco pub in the town to get the Winter Gardens treatment.

She remembers the pier and the Winter Gardens being a "fabulous place to be", and "much-missed" since its closure.

"The beauty of that structure is that it's all-weather. You can pop in for a walk around and a cuppa on a rainy day, and Yarmouth has missed that."

Ms Jones says she hopes the restoration will include a nod to Great Yarmouth's skating heritage, as the town lost its only rink when the Marina Centre was knocked down last year to make way for a new £26m leisure complex.

"Skating was such a big scene in Great Yarmouth, with skating follies and competitions. There were rinks inside and outside the Winter Gardens, which could be used all year.

"The Winter Gardens was a big attraction and that's what it needs to be again - a place for everybody."

Local historian Colin Tooke, who has written books about the area, hopes the investment would mean the Winter Gardens would recover its landmark status on the seafront.

"It's marvellous news - it would have fallen down otherwise," said Mr Tooke.

"It's such a big building and such a focal point for the whole of the seafront."

Mr Tooke, who lives in the town, says Great Yarmouth has always been well-known for roller-skating, with the Winter Gardens' indoor rink at the heart of this reputation.

In the summer months, skating would move next door on to an outdoor rink while the building was used as a beer garden for holiday-makers.

But he says drawing people to the venue year-round had always been a problem.

"It's got to be a 12-month attraction to keep it going," he says Mr Tooke.

"Seaside towns do need investment.

"I hope it's successful and it can become the landmark building of the seafront that people go to."

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