East Suffolk Council
Arts hub at former Post Office given go ahead
A major project to transform the former Post Office building in Lowestoft into an exciting new arts space will now progress following planning consent given by East Suffolk Council’s Planning Committee.
Planning permission has been granted for the former Post Office in Lowestoft, an important milestone in transforming the Grade II listed building into a gallery, work studios and café.
Securing planning permission and Listed Building Consent allows work to begin to transform the building into an arts venue that will enable more local people to engage in art and bring creative people together to work.
The building, which has been vacant since 2017, was purchased by East Suffolk Council to help kickstart regeneration in the town centre. Funding from both the Towns Fund and East Suffolk Council will enable the building to come back into use.
Restoration works have already been completed on the façade of the former Post Office last year, as part of the London Road, Lowestoft High Street Heritage Action Zone, funded by Historic England and the Towns Fund.
The Post Office will be managed by Messums East, a distinguished gallerist recognised for revitalising old buildings and embedding them within communities through artistic enterprise. The building will provide a working studio for Laurence Edwards, an internationally renowned sculptor who was born and raised in East Suffolk.
Cllr Toby Hammond, East Suffolk’s cabinet member for Economic Development and Transport said: “This is an exciting project which will transform a historic empty building into a landmark arts venue, attracting more people to the town and bring real benefits for the local community. Culture and leisure activities are key to regenerating the town centre and Messums East will help to grow the creative sector, providing more cultural opportunities for residents and promoting the town more widely as a visitor destination.”
Within the Post Office, there will also be space for a revolving residency of international, national and regional artists, as well as exhibition spaces, a screening room and café with outdoor seating.
Laurence Edwards, who created the Chthonic Head which was temporarily installed on Lowestoft’s South Beach last summer as part of First Light Festival, will also be working to create a large-scale bronze landmark sculpture for the town.
In the coming weeks, the Council will appoint a main contractor to undertake the works and aim to start construction from July. The works are expected to take a year to complete, with the aim for the Post Office to open to the public from Autumn 2025.
About the Towns Fund
In 2019, Lowestoft was chosen as one of 100 UK towns to benefit from the Government's £3.6 billion Towns Fund. Each town was invited by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) to develop a proposal for a Towns Deal, with up to £25 million available to bid for.
In 2020, a Town Investment Plan which sets out Lowestoft’s ambitions, opportunities and challenges over the next ten years was submitted to the Government as the basis of a £24.9m application to the Towns Fund, focusing on five transformational regeneration projects.
The full funding was provisionally secured in March 2021, in which a Town Deal was agreed in principle with Government, subject to the completion of detailed businesses cases for each of the five projects. These were completed in March 2022 and all five projects received final approval from Government in July 2022.
The five projects are:
- The Station Quarter, which will see both the former Post Office and front of the vacant Lowestoft railway station building fully restored and brought back into full working use.
- The Cultural Quarter, which will see improvements to the Marina Theatre, the redevelopment of the Council’s current Customer Services Centre to provide a new cultural facility with associated eatery, and the redevelopment of the former Battery Green multi-storey car park to provide a new leisure offer.
- The Historic Quarter which will focus on the redevelopment and refurbishment of the Town Hall.
- The Seafront Vision which will see the redevelopment of Royal Plain including the Royal Plain fountains, Royal Green and associated public realm to complement the recently refurbished East Point Pavilion.
- The Port Gateway project which will support the development of the Lowestoft Eastern Energy Facility (LEEF) to secure Lowestoft’s future as an Operations and Maintenance hub for the offshore renewables sector.
The Lowestoft Town Investment Plan was developed in partnership with the Lowestoft Place Board, which comprises representatives from public, private and voluntary organisations and is overseen by East Suffolk Council.