Derelict Art Deco pub awarded £2.4m lottery grant

A boarded-up seafront Art Deco pub has been granted £2.4m in lottery funding to help turn around its fortunes.

The Grade II-listed Iron Duke in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, closed in 2007 and has attracted vandals while falling into disrepair.

But the National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will now help restore the derelict site on North Drive into an all-year destination, with a pub, restaurant and two holiday apartments.

Bernard Williamson, chairman of Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust (GYPT) which has been overseeing the project after buying the site in 2021, said it was "incredibly grateful".

He added the money would enable it "to take this project forward and start to deliver the full restoration and economic reuse of this incredibly important listed building".

The charity had already been handed £300,000 lottery money in a first round of funding and submitted building plans to Great Yarmouth Borough Council last year.

Local American diner chain Zaks will operate a pub in one of The Iron Duke's two original bars and a restaurant in the other.

Zaks co-owner Chris Carr said the company wanted the redevelopment to be a "real destination for both locals and visitors".

"The Iron Duke is such an iconic building, and we look forward to working with GYPT to breathe life back into it," he said.

"Being both local and already having a business in the town, we look forward to creating new jobs, working with the diverse community, and forming further partnerships with local businesses and suppliers."

Two Art Deco-style holiday apartments will be created in the former pub manager's flat on the first floor.

GYPT said both bars would be returned to their 1930s Art Deco glory, following research through the archives and contact with conservation pub consultants, architectural historians and interior designers.

The original plans have also been made use of, while former owners, managers and pub-goers have helped shape the new plans, according to GYPT.

It is hoped the building will reopen in early summer 2026.

The site's surroundings will be landscaped, while people can also get involved in learning traditional building skills and a photographic records project, as well as food and cooking workshops aimed at making the most of low-cost and local produce.

According to The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB), the pub was granted a special licence so it could serve locally stationed troops during World War Two.

It reopened in 1948, the society said.

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