Maritime House in Great Yarmouth to reopen as cafe

Maritime House, a 19th century building on Marine Parade, is a relic of the town's seafaring heyday and has more lately been used as a museum and a tourist information centre until it closed in 2020. 

The future of the property will be discussed next Wednesday, October 16, by members of Great Yarmouth Borough Council's (GYBC) development management committee. 

Councillors will debate plans to transform the listed building into a new venue which also includes office space and flats on the upper floors. 

Maritime House, pictured in 2015 during its time as a tourist information centre. (Image: Archant)

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In a report prepared ahead of the meeting planners are recommending the committee approves the application.  

If the project gets the go-ahead, the revamp would be carried out by Kenzoku Properties, a Norfolk-based firm that specialises in renovation work.  

The borough council put Maritime House on the market for £250,000 in February this year, with the authority calling the three-storey property "surplus to requirements."  

The council had previously investigated converting the upper floors into flats, but that endeavour was deemed too expensive.   

The Maritime House in Great Yarmouth when it was still operating as the Sailors' Home. (Image: Archant) READ MORE: Uncertain future for shipwrecked sailors' refuge

The applicant has said the revamp will ensure the building's connection with its nautical past will remain through a "themed concept that recognises its rich history." 

Maritime House was built as the British and Foreign Sailors’ Home and Refuge for the Shipwrecked in 1860. 

According to the plans, the ground floor is already set up to successfully accommodate a café use with minimal changes. 

The RNLI will also assist with the project, with the charity set to benefit from fundraising events at the site. 

There have been no objections to the application. 

The crew from a Dutch cargo streamer, which was mined and sunk in June 1916, on the steps of the Sailors' Home in Great Yarmouth. (Image: Archant) A relic of Great Yarmouth's seafaring heyday 

Over the course of a hundred years, thousands of sailors passed through the home, with 1,400 staying there during the Second World War. 

The Sailors' Home closed in 1965 as advances in maritime safety reduced the need. 

From 1967, the building was used as the Maritime Museum. 

After it closed in 2002, the museum's varied collection of 5,000 objects was moved to the yet-to-open Time and Tide Museum on Blackfriars Road. 

After its life as a museum, Maritime House became home to the Great Yarmouth Tourist Authority until 2018 and the Tourist Information Centre until 2020. 

The building has become the focus of debate in recent years due to the significant costs it posed to the council - £42,769 per year in maintenance and other costs.