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Felixstowe Seafront and Town Centre Master Plan DAVID LOCK ASSOCIATES Felixstowe and Trimleys Peninsula Future Steering Group November 2007 2. Analysis & Overview 2.1 THE STUDY AREA The study area for the master plan encompasses the heart of Felixstowe – the town centre and seafront. Building upon the foundations of the Local Strategy for Felixstowe Peninsula (David Lock Associates, 2005), which studied the wider Felixstowe Peninsula, the master plan focuses specifically on the urban core and the seafront. This is the historic centre from which the town has grown to become the largest of six towns within the Suffolk Coastal District. The most significant period of growth occurred in the nineteenth century when the town developed rapidly as a popular seaside resort, famed for its record of high levels of sunshine and low rainfall. Whilst the town’s attraction as a tourist resort has declined in the face of changing patterns of tourism in the last fifty years, the nineteenth century development boom has left a legacy of a high quality seaside townscape. The Victorian and Edwardian architectural vernacular provides a unique character for the heart of the town centre and seafront. 2.2 SEAFRONT The seafront is Felixstowe’s greatest attraction with long beaches, wide sea views and an extensive promenade, along with a variety of other leisure attractions. Existing leisure attractions and accommodation are mostly of lower quality aimed at visitors at the lower end of the spend markets. This has ensured a seasonal supply of visitors but at the expense of quality and investment, resulting in a deteriorating physical environment and townscape. The assets that make the resort popular – the promenade and beaches – are threatened by storms which places emphasis on the need for adequate coastal defences. This has resulted in limited interest from existing residents and low tourist income. 2.3 TOWN CENTRE Felixstowe’s town centre is located on the sea cliff above the beach and resort seafront. The town centre’s heart is set along Hamilton Road, the north-south route which directly connects the train station at the northern gateway of the town centre to the seafront at the southern (cliff)edge. Hamilton Road is a vibrant and relatively prosperous high street, with a mixture of retail units and offices spread along both sides of the street. The most vibrant section of the high street and the greatest concentration of national chains occurs between Cobbold Road and Orwell Road. The Triangle, a triangularly shaped area of public space located at the mid-point of Hamilton Road performs the function of town square and central meeting point. 2.4 CHARACTER AREAS To assist the process of rationalisation of the range of projects DLA has identified a series of character areas that represent the diversity of the town and seafront. The definition of character areas will help to classify the projects, and consequently the priorities within each character area of the master plan study area. The Character Areas Plan (drawing SCDC01-01) illustrates the distribution of different zones of activity within the master plan study area. The character areas are colour coded to identify the pattern of land uses; • Red - retail core along the Hamilton Road High Street; • Purple - mixed use gateways to the town centre and seafront at the Station, the Ordnance and Beach Station Road; • Yellow - areas of leisure sea frontage; • Green - area of Landguard Point and Suffolk Sand Nature Reserve; • Sandy brown - residential areas which generally fill the remaining areas between the core component parts – retail, leisure & open space. 6
