Mundesley Holiday Village

East Anglia was home to the first dedicated holiday village at Thorpeness in Suffolk, which is still in existence and retains its original purpose, attracting holiday makers year round. The Norfolk coast has subsequently had a number of holiday parks over time, mainly on the coast around Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

This site on the North Norfolk coast near Mundesley is still thriving, although the model of on-site entertainments, catering and facilities has changed, the original ‘Butlins’ style concept now very outdated. The emphasis is instead very much more on self-contained accommodation with some communal facilities such as a games room, spa, sauna and gym. Visitors are today also more independent than those that visited Mundesley in the early days of its existence and prefer to cater for themselves, whilst eating and drinking out locally is recognised as also being beneficial for the wider local economy.

This project, a contemporary updating of seaside holiday accommodation, is for a residential development on the site of the outdated entertainment facilities. The scheme we designed is for two three-storey blocks topped by a dramatic metal roof with distinctive curved ends. This feature not only defines the buildings but is also a durable option for an exposed coastal location, minimising future maintenance.

The buildings are slightly set down in a hollow, providing shelter from the exposed coastal side to the North. They are also configured to lie beyond the erosion line as defined by the Council, with long views across the fields and the open Norfolk landscape to the South.