A prominent pub, watchmakers and former butchers' shop that's been empty on a historic high street for more than eight years could soon be set for a new lease of life.
Having been a butchers from around the 1930s up until its closure, the former Triangle Butchery - and prior to that Pye's - at 87 High Street in Lowestoft is set to be auctioned off this month.
Previously home to fish merchants and artists, back in 1865 87 High Street was run as a watchmaker's but shortly after this it became the Exhibition Stores - with the pub closing somewhere between 1913 and 1921.
Most recently 87 High Street was purchased by East Suffolk Council in 2020.
Having been closed, boarded-up and left in a "dilapidated condition" in a conservation area, a scheme to restore the shop frontage of the former butchers was given the go-ahead in December 2021.
It led to artwork by Suffolk artist Allan Drummond being installed on the vacant shopfront - with a delicatessen paying homage to the building's past.
A council spokesman said: "East Suffolk Council purchased the empty building in 2020 and subsequently secured planning permission for revival of the shopfront and the addition of a new two-storey extension with residential conversion.
"East Suffolk Council’s cabinet has now approved a recommendation to sell the property at auction, enabling a purchaser, with available capital, to improve the building and bring it back into use."
Now, people have the chance to own the commercial property as it is being offered for sale at auction.
Marketed by Auction House East Anglia, 87 High Street in Lowestoft is due to be sold on a freehold tenure at an online auction on Wednesday, October 23, with a guide price of £20,000 to £40,000 plus fees.
Described as a "Prominent High Street premises in need of full modernisation" with "Consent for residential conversion," the property description from the auctioneers adds: "Having been vacant for a number of years this former retail premises now needs full updating and remedial repair."
Future investment
It comes amid ongoing work to improve the High Street area in Lowestoft.
An East Suffolk Council spokesman said: "The High Street has benefitted from a wider programme to invest more than £366,000 of public sector funding and £135,000 of private sector investment into the repair and refurbishment of 15 vacant and neglected buildings as part of the five-year, heritage led North Lowestoft Heritage Action Zone regeneration programme, jointly funded by Historic England and East Suffolk Council, working in partnership with Lowestoft Town Council, Lowestoft Vision and the East Suffolk Building Preservation Trust.
"Over the next three years, East Suffolk Council and Historic England will be further investing in the High Street through the partnership in a Conservation Area Scheme, which will act as a legacy for the Heritage Action Zones and provide further grant funding opportunities for building owners, along with project management support.
"Meanwhile, East Suffolk Council has provided support for Lowestoft Town Council’s plan to restore and revitalise the historic Town Hall – a project to have received an allocation of £2million in Towns Fund investment as part of the overall £24.9m Lowestoft’s Town Deal awarded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in 2022.
"A temporary mural, painted onto aluminium board, was commissioned to protect and enhance the vacant shopfront (at 87 High Street) while the council’s Asset Management, Housing and Economic Regeneration teams explored future regeneration schemes, including more extensive, private sector development, for which it was deemed most suitable due to size constraint."
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