Southend Pier Cultural Centre
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Luke Hayes (website) Download Original
Cafe and cultural centre situated at the end of the world's longest pleasure pier, a cast-iron grade II-listed structure
The cultural centre contains a café with an outdoor terrace, a multi-purpose space with seating for 185 people for exhibitions and performances, a 40 m2 artists’ studio and ancillary accommodation including toilets and a kitchen.
The pavilion, which has inclined walls clad with GRP and a roof treated with a non-slip textured top coat, sits on a plinth clad in new and reclaimed boards 1.5m above the pier deck due to the risk of flooding during high tides.
To minimise the time spent working on the pier the pavilion’s 170-tonne steel frame was fabricated as a complete assembly, along with 75 per cent of its external envelope, at Tilbury Docks, and barged to the site.
Data
- Begun: Jan 2012
- Completed: Aug 2012
- Floor area: 376m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £3.3M
- Procurement: Two-stage design and build (JCT D&B 2011)
- Address: Southend Pier, Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: White arkitekter
- Client: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
- Executive architect: Sprunt
- Structural engineer: Price & Myers
- M&E consultant: Atelier Ten
- M&E consultant: DGR Mechanical Services
- Quantity surveyor: Sweett Group
- Main contractor: Keir Construction
- Planning consultant: Turley Associates
- Building inspector: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
- Environmental consultant: AECOM