Community Hub

The Sidings: A mixed use hub located on the historic Railway Quay in Newhaven

The Sidings bistro at Railway Quay Newhaven is a community sustainability hub that has been developed for the use of, and operated by, the community as part of the maritime towns ‘Re-Imagining Newhaven project’, delivered using available towns funding and supported by CIL.

The site is a former railway dock which had been vacant for years. This project is a 5 year meanwhile scheme which allows for future expansion on the site, future proofing this area for growth. The design and construction repurposed used shipping containers on pad foundations/anchors. Due to the level of contamination, from the quays former use, extensive land remediation had to take place, restoring the site to its baseline condition, and removing all environmental risks. The site had no services infrastructure, so the team had to bring in all services and introduce a foul water treatment system (the meanwhile use made it unviable to bring in mains services).

Stickland Wright supported the team in the detailed design and delivery of The Sidings, another project for us in a town that we are heavily invested in.

Project team includes:

Client: Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Council

Construction: OSM Construction

Employers Agent: Crossley Anderson

Concept Architects: Felce & Guy

Building Services Engineer: Delta Green

Photography by OSM Construction

View more hospitality architecture projects here.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Stickland Wright, due to our technical expertise, often help deliver projects which have first been designed by others. In this instance the design concept for The Sidings ‘meanwhile use’ had already been granted planning consent. Stickland Wright helped to amend the proposals to suit future occupiers and facilitate the build teams requirements, bringing the project to life.

Our SW+ service detailed the modular solution with shipping containers adopted to suit the requirement for ‘meanwhile use’. We have good experience of these and were able to embrace the numerous stake holder inputs, including those of build team, local authority client and occupiers. We were also required to work within the numerous constraints of this coastal estuary location.

In consideration of the low energy design initiatives here, the main principle is of circularity. The proposal was always intended to be a ‘meanwhile use’ of the land with all buildings capable of being dis-assembled and the site left clean for new use. The shipping containers could be removed and re-purposed for different locations.