The Transformation of Ness Point

[boatbuilder]

Following the announcement yesterday of the £1M grant for the redevelopment/transformation of Ness Point, what are your opinions and thoughts on the issue?
Do you have any ideas of what YOU would like to see there? If so why not share them here.

This latest LINK about it is from the Journal.

Looking south from Ness Point in 2002

NP01092002.jpg (152.51 KiB) Viewed 955 times

[SheilaO]

I would love to see some lovely gardens, and the smell of hot cooking fat taken away, the factories and commercial buildings knocked down and replaced by attractive boutique type buildings, a pretty walk to south Lowestoft Nothing unrealistic really

[boatbuilder]

Ideally the whole industrial estate needs 'transplanting' to the outskirts of the town Sheila, or a way to access the proposed finished product via routes which will avoid having to 'see' it both en-route and when there, if that was at all possible.

[Aussie K]

It would be a tricky job bb to put those rig accommodation units onto a raft if the company was moved to the Gisleham industries.

[boatbuilder]

That's not the part I was referring to Aussie. I was talking about the Whapload Road area from Kwik Fit/John Grose, northwards. That is more a part of the dock area and I have no problem with that.

[Aussie K]

I would Like to see a great fishing Platform right on the East Point, suitable areas for handicapped people, and if possible an electric barbique point which could be coin operated. Also big enough to hold national fishing competitions and even summer markets.at the farthermost point a sight seeing view point.
The local Photographers and visitors would make great use of it.
The size of it would have to be dependent upon the budget available. but maybe widened and/or extended as the years roll by.

[nikkai]

Why is it that just about every idea is to build something grand and in your face or massive and this and that? why not just have some decent public toilets which are LOOKED AFTER and allow the natural area to have just nature awash it unhindered with the first sun rays of every day of every week of every year it manages to remain the most Easterly Point of the British Mainland

[Aussie K]

nikkai
If we built a grandiois public toilet down at East Point it wouldn't attract one more visitor to visit the most easterly point in Briton and if the toilets where looked after as well as they are normally looked after then most of us get home quick before we had to use it.
The most easterly point in Briton deserves something special (if it can be afforded} not just for our self gratification, but for the people who travel to the east on vacation, visit the East Point and what do they see. Just a load of rocks plenty of piles and a massive and expensive wind generator, and of coarse no toilets. Lets try to be ambitious.
What say you all.

[Mel]

I agree with what someone in this week's Journal has proposed and that is to use the million pounds further north along the coast where the beach starts. Make a visitors centre displaying what the beach village was like in days gone by, café and toilets. Because where the actual Ness Point is situated is an industrial area and any money spent there would be wasted in my opinion.

A better idea is to put the million pound towards turning the Town Hall into a local museum and then have guided walks from there to Ness Point.

[SL-Dave]

I think a possible idea would be to make safe and open to the public all of the 'olde Lowestoft' town that runs underneath the current High Street. Many shops can access this through their basements, although the council have put a prohibition order on this due to unsafe workings. It dates back hundreds of years, and connects the High Street through smugglers tunnels to Ness Point and surrounding areas. There are even some old shop buildings 'underneath' existing shop buildings, that could be delicately restored to show how Lowestoft used to look centuries ago.

[SNiBet]

Wow never knew about old underground shops, did we literally build over them for flooding purposes and prevention?

[SL-Dave]

I don't know the reason for the building over of them. However, I used to live in a block of flats near the lighthouse, and in our basement there was the entrance to one of the smugglers tunnels that had been bricked up for safety. Much of Lowestoft's income used to come from smuggling centuries ago, with most of the town involved at some point or another.

[frankiesays]

These "tunnels" are hotly disputed by Lowestoft historians though it has to be said, especially the tunnel that is said to go to St Margarets.

[frankiesays]

Perhaps we need some lateral thinking regarding Ness Point. As it clearly is surrounded by things inconducive to a public "monument" why not move it? We just need lots of rocks and concrete to produce a promontory in an alternative location which is a couple of yards further east. You could put whatever you wanted on that. How about a new pier for instance?

[Cowper]

I don't know if it's still there, but there was a shop in the old High Street called 'Come and Sew' that had an ancient room underneath, and which could be visited by prior request - north of Spurgens Score. It was probably several years ago that I heard about this and don't know the current situation. Sadly I hardly ever go into the old High Street these days, ever since my dentist up there was taken over, and he subsequently moved.

Didn't Oliver Cromwell once take refuge in one of the old buildings in the High Street, or is that myth?