Final plans submitted to restore listed wartime pub

The plans would see the building turned into a pub and restaurant, with two holiday flats

Plans to restore a Grade II listed pub back to its 1930s heyday have been submitted for more grant funding.

The Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust (GYPT) wants to reopen the now-derelict Iron Duke pub in the seaside Norfolk town.

The charity has already been handed nearly £300,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, but it applied for a second round of funding on Thursday.

"This is an extraordinarily exciting project which will see a fascinating and beautiful building brought back to life," said Bernard Williams, chairman of GYPT.

"The robust and thorough approach to the development period has left no stone unturned.

"There have been extensive below-ground surveys, historic paint analysis; even unexploded bomb surveys.

"All this work, together with the sensitive architectural design work and business planning, will help get the building restored and back in use."

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has already granted £293,356 to the project, in January last year

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.

The pub reopened its doors to the public in 1948, but was boarded up by its former owner in 2007 - the SAHGB said.

GYPT purchased the building in February 2021 and hopes to reopen by 2026.

The charity wants to start work on the Iron Duke in 2025, and open the following year

Carl Smith, the Conservative leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said the local authority was pleased to lend its support to "such an ambitious vision".

The charity and its commercial partner, Zaks, want a pub and restaurant inside what would be an art deco-style building, as well as two holiday flats.

GYPT said it would submit applications for planning permission and listed building consent next week.

However, plans for the Iron Duke have been opposed by the group, Campaign for Pubs.

It said it wanted the pub reinstated as a "traditional pubic house with its original features restored".

In a statement, the group added: "Our view of the Iron Duke is that the pub's location, at the northern end of North Denes, is in an area served by very few public houses and we would expect that the seaside holiday trade coupled with the local population would take advantage of the pub should it be recommissioned."