Description
The central section of Hornsea Promenade is approximately 300m in length and extends from the Marine Hotel & Public House in the north to the corner of Marine Drive and New Road in the south. To the west the scheme is bounded along most of its length by Marine Drive and to the east by the severe change in level between the promenade and the beach.
The linear walkway along the sea seafront has been retained and resurfaced with buff coloured resin bound gravel to create one continuous surface. A new stainless steel and hardwood ballustrade, which continues the angle of the concrete retaining wall below, has been fixed to the top of the sea wall and designed to "mimic the balustrade of an ocean liner". A line of new lighting columns have been installed along the length of the revamped promenade. These are contemporary in style.
An open grass area, between the promenade walkway and Marine Drive, has been transformed into a series of smaller spaces, subdivided by solid granite walls and hardwood timber 'groynes'. Four timber boardwalks cut diagonally across this space and create linking routes from Marine Drive, passing through the garden spaces, to the promenade, terminating at a series of cantilevered crows nest look-out points. The diagonal boardwalks also act to form the boundaries between the four sequential garden spaces. The first of these consists of an area of grass, mounded into wave forms which 'break' against a series of granite walls. Two central garden spaces, one sub-divided by hardwood groynes with planting and small areas of grass, and the other, totally enclosed by a granite wall with intimate seating bays located amongst the planting. A timber boardwalk links these two central spaces and connects into the final garden space, a timber decked area with children's splash pool. The pool provides interactive push button water effects together with hand crafted stone bird reliefs which have been carved into the central water wall. Benches have been fixed to a granite wall along the western edge of the space and these provide seating around the splash pool. Immediately adjacent to this space, a small former depot building has been converted into a cafe with public toilets to the rear. This building forms the focus of activity along the promenade.
To the north of this building, seven new beach huts have been constructed. These back onto an existing 2-3 m high brick wall, which forms the eastern boundary to the hotel car park. From the west the distinctive saw tooth roofline of the huts are seen above the wall.
