Folkestone Seafront redevelopment will see the harbour station renovated. with new restaurant
The next stage of the eagerly awaited Folkestone Seafront redevelopment will see the harbour station renovated.
Designs released by Folkestone Harbour Company, which owns the land and is overseeing the multi-million pound project, show what the restored harbour station will look like
The new plans form part of the town’s seafront regeneration and when it is completed, the work to the station will connect the town centre, Creative Quarter and the hugely popular Harbour Arm.
Work is already being carried out to restore and repair the historic and listed harbour viaduct and swing bridge and the harbour station work will begin later this month
The viaduct, which once carried trains into the harbour, will become a new pedestrian walkway for people to walk along the old platforms, down the tracks and onto the Harbour Arm pier.
Another development will see the arrival of
These historic carriages, which have sat on the Wearside seafront for decades, will house a restaurant at Folkestone harbour’s historic railway station.
Ben Boyce, who is involved in the regeneration of Folkestone harbour, was at the site to oversee the work.
Explaining the rationale for acquiring the carriages, he said: “They’ll be taken to a yard next for restoration work, the scope of which needs to be determined.
“They’ll then be placed on the sea front in Folkstone harbour at the old station.
“An act of parliament closed the branch line a couple of years ago so we are turning the station into a public space.
“The cars will sit there and house a restaurant.”
According to Mr Boyce, the Pullman carriages actually have more of a historical link to Folkestone.
He said: “These carriages actually used to run in and out of Folkstone as part of the Orient Express so they are actually out of context in Seaburn.”
Pullman luxury dining cars, first introduced into the British rail system during the Victorian era, have been preserved at several sites across the country as leisure spaces.
