Great Yarmouth Winter Gardens shortlisted in the 2026 Pineapple Awards
The shortlist for the 2026 Pineapple Awards has been announced and includes the restoration of Great Yarmouth Winter Gardens in the Future Place category. The Winter Gardens is the UK’s last surviving seaside glasshouse; a landmark loved across generations. Its restoration will transform the currently neglected glass and cast-iron structure into a vibrant year-round destination for leisure, culture and celebration. Part botanic sanctuary, part performance hall, part community living room, it will bring planting, food, events and heritage together under one spectacular roof. Re-opened as a “People’s Palace”, it will boost local pride, attract visitors, support jobs and anchor the wider regeneration of the seafront.
The Pineapples are the only awards that celebrate the very best in placemaking and place-led initiatives. With an exciting programme and a commitment to recognising projects that make a positive social, environmental and economic impact - they celebrate places that contribute to urban life and encourage people to live, work, dwell or play.
The Pineapple for future place seeks to recognise a masterplan, planning application, action plan or design proposal for a place, whether in development or theoretical. A place is a mixed-use development or a cluster of multiple developments that create a neighbourhood, large or small and contains new or improved public realm. The judges were looking for a well-designed future place that seeks to foster community, welcome visitors and attract tenants, contribute to urban life and makes a positive environmental and social impact.
The Grade II* Listed Winter Gardens stands on Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile seafront as the last surviving example of a Victorian seaside glasshouse in the UK. Once filled with light, planting, music and celebration, the building is a landmark woven into the town’s collective memory; a place where families met, danced, gathered and played across generations. Its closure in 2008 left a cultural and emotional gap at the heart of the resort.
Great Yarmouth is a place shaped by maritime industry, migration and tourism, with communities who are both resilient and proud, but living within some of the UK’s highest indices of deprivation. The restoration of the Winter Gardens is not simply about preserving a historic structure; it is about restoring a shared civic stage and everyday meeting place that speaks to the identity of the town.
The project is a flagship for the seafront’s wider regeneration and a catalyst for skills, employment and cultural participation. It is supported by a Heritage Horizon Award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Town Deal funding, reflecting its local, regional and national significance.
The Winter Gardens will operate as a visitor attraction and a daily-use civic space: a warm, green, welcoming place for informal gathering, indoor play, quiet reflection, meeting friends, learning and creativity. Its presence will support economic growth along the seafront, reinforcing local businesses and contributing to the town’s tourism economy.
The restored Winter Gardens is designed to be a vibrant, inclusive and flexible public environment, blending planting, hospitality, culture, wellbeing and everyday community use under one spectacular roof. The building will offer food and drink spaces, a flexible performance and events hall, a learning and activity space, and layered planting that provides atmosphere, seasonal change and visual drama.
The architectural approach restores the cast-iron frame and reinstates the building’s original lightness and transparency, while introducing new timber and glazing elements that sit quietly within the historic volume. A new first-floor gallery weaves through the structure, offering views across the planting and out to the beach and sea. At the heart of the building, a generous “hellerup” stair becomes a social terrace; a place to gather, sit, listen, watch and meet.
Externally, new landscaping continues the planting scheme and reconnects the Winter Gardens to the seafront and wider Golden Mile, improving permeability and reinforcing the building as a welcoming civic landmark.
The planting strategy prioritises wellbeing, sensory experience and storytelling. It avoids energy-intensive tropical horticulture, instead creating a sub-tropical environment with drought-tolerant species, many inspired by Great Yarmouth’s maritime trading history. Interpretation focuses on sustainability, adaptation and resilience, helping visitors understand how climate challenge is being met locally and globally.
By returning the Winter Gardens as a welcoming, inclusive and lively public asset, the project strengthens belonging and wellbeing while animating the town’s cultural life year-round. It reconnects the Winter Gardens with the people who shaped it, creating a renewed “People’s Palace” at the heart of Great Yarmouth’s next chapter.