Framlingham Castle

ARCHITECT

Clews Architects

DETAIL

Framlingham Castle is one of the most significant heritage sites in East Anglia, attracting up to 2,000 visitors on event days and around 400–750 visitors on regular days. As part of a wider visitor improvement project, the scheme aimed to improve access to previously restricted areas, enhance interpretation, and create a comprehensive new catering offer within the castle walls.

The project focused on the Poorhouse, adapted to house a new café servery, with the kitchen located in the Red House. The design approach balanced operational efficiency with a sensitive, light-touch interior that respected the historic fabric of the site.

Cooper8 was appointed to deliver the interior design and catering consultancy for the new café and kitchen facilities. This included:

• Designing a kitchen and servery within two historic buildings.
• Creating a café layout integrated with the adjacent retail area, ensuring smooth visitor flow.
• Working closely with the Properties Curator to ensure all interventions were reversible, minimal, and fully recorded.

A major challenge was kitchen ventilation, as no new penetrations were permitted through the historic fabric. Cooper8 designed an innovative solution using the existing chimney flue for extraction, with access points for cleaning. Fresh air was introduced through fly-screened windows, and the cooking suite was designed to be all-electric, reducing impact on the building.

We also introduced advanced dishwashing technology with heat reclaim and recirculation, saving up to 20% of operating costs per wash cycle and significantly reducing steam emissions into the café environment.

The resulting café provided an efficient, sustainable, and visitor-focused catering facility that enhanced the visitor experience while protecting the Castle’s historic character.

Scope of Work

• Catering consultancy and interior design
• Kitchen and servery design
• Ventilation and extraction strategy using historic chimney
• All-electric cooking and sustainable dishwashing systems
• Coordination with curator and archaeological supervision
• Café and retail integration
• Electrical supply upgrade
• Sensitive heritage-focused interiors and visuals