Eyemouth Pavilions: Shipshape

13 Jul 2023

The ambitious regeneration of Eyemouth’s Old Fishmarket reels in Urban Realm as we take a closer look at how a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional fishing huts has enabled the borders town to net new opportunities. Is the result all it shapes up to be? Photography by Nick Kane.

The completion of a new community centre that is a “public anchor” to its waterfront furnishes the fishing town of Eyemouth with a safe harbour in a time of economic storms. The first in a series of pavilions introducing self-contained studios for start-up businesses above public sea gardens tended by local community groups the project by Eyemouth Harbour Trust and Galmstrup Architects seeks to reinvigorate the maritime zone by reinventing the idea of what a harbour can be.

Standing beneath a curved zinc roof, a homage to the town’s boat-building legacy, the cross-laminated timber structure stands on glulam beams and steel columns, clad in ship-lab profiled timber on the upper level. Ground floor units will be fully glazed with large bifold or patio doors opening towards the quayside to eliminate blank frontages, with the gaps between pavilions left as open public space. Employing timber construction, combining traditional hardwood joinery and prefabricated Cross Laminated Timber, the new pavilions are set back to allow a wider promenade to be formed and include a feature roof which alludes to the harbour sailboats and building gables. The pavilion’s influence extends far beyond its walls, one pavilion or several? plugging directly into a new promenade that stretches from the harbour to the seafront by way of the High Street.

Working with established landmarks such as the 18th-century Gunsgreen House the pavilions are naturally ventilated with generous openings permitting ample daylight. Anne Marie Marie Galmstrup, director of Galmstrup Architects, said: “We took an urban approach and worked with a longer stretch of the harbourfront than the original Old Fishmarket site we were given. The community wanted to open up views and make better use of this central site. We proposed to connect the town centre, seafront and harbourfront to create a natural loop within the conservation area. Instead of one long building, we, therefore, proposed a series of smaller pavilions with gardens and squares in between. The project hereby returns large open spaces to civic usage in the town. A place to ‘see and be seen’. “

After securing public funding with a remit to maintain, preserve and improve the harbourfront and to regenerate a parcel of land known locally as the Old Fishmarket, latterly a Maritime Museum, Galmstrup demolished the 1960’s building, with plans to eventually replace it with three small pavilions of up to 90sq m incorporating winter gardens for al fresco dining, events and community use and with office rental pods above modelled on traditional boathouses.

Galmstrup continued: “Typically, community centres already have space and activities in place when they commission an architect. We worked together with our client to explore what activities and functional programs might work for the community and would complement and not compete with existing infrastructure. Our client took an ambitious decision with this project creating a strong landmark and open community space for their harbour – and it has landed well with the community.

“As such, the new Eyemouth Pavilions on the Old Fishmarket site are much more than bricks and mortar. It is offering a new type of civic space which will grow and mature with its users over the coming years. Community building and buildings are important resources for a sustainable and healthy society. Scottish towns and local high streets have become increasingly vulnerable, as larger public and commercial facilities are established in peripheries or between towns. By diluting the local high streets and eliminating walking from our cities, we become more detached from our fellow citizens. Strengthening retail and leisure facilities in our town centres is vital for local economies and has proven valuable tools for active citizenship.”

The catch of the day for this established Berwickshire fishing community is no red herring, but continues a diversification drive that gives Eyemouth an identity separate from that of an Edinburgh commuter town. With one eye out to sea and the other fixed on the town the Pavilions straddle the boundary between past and present, securing the future in the process.