The Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant is a “high throughput” licensed fish restaurant on one of the foremost landmarks on Southend Seafront.

The Client’s - new build

The Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant concept was formatted around 1988 as a licensed fish restaurant and since then has grown into one of the foremost restaurant landmarks on Southend Seafront enjoying a good reputation, as a family business, for quality dining.

Since its concept many improvements to the property have been made to accommodate the expanding business, the latest of which is the new covered weather proof area at the front of the restaurant.

The new restaurant, on the site of the existing, is located next door to the huge Pier Hill lift development and sits in the vicinity of the Pier and opposite the highly vibrant amusement park complex “Adventure Island”.

Many Southend visitors/customers are turned away because of the shortage of suitable restaurant capacity as a consequence of the huge investments made by Southend Council around Pier Hill to regenerate the sea front.

There is now a plan to move forward with the development of a new two storey restaurant, on an extended footprint, to meet this demand.

The Project

Seafront restaurant seating demand is directly proportional to the weather; when the sun is out demand is high and when it’s in the demand is low.

The extraordinary high demand is likewise highly operationally testing and the design needs to reflect, in the layout, the management and delivery of food to the customer at the table such that high quality is retained.

The table layout predominates and the building, whilst aesthetically pleasing, is there to keep the customers dry, thereby ensuring and demonstrating the strength of the business plan to funders.

Achieve sign-off of the Client’s Brief and prepare project control and delivery processes and prepare drawings and specifications, as necessary, to present the intent to a “design and build” contractor

Manage the commissioning and handover of entire project.

The Delivery Process

RSW Partnership were engaged within a Project Executive as The Project Director and Principal Contractor to establish basic requirements such as numbers of office spaces, conferencing needs, workshop and laboratory operations, space allocations, parking etc.

RSW Partnership engaged with local Real Estate Agents to seek out suitable locations, in this instance VAM had determined they wanted to set up in the South East of the UK. Various sites were reviewed and some suitable empty units were identified in the Carnival Park area close to the Festival Leisure Park in Basildon, Essex.

RSW Partnership undertook a full condition survey of 5 different vacant units and conducted a feasibility study, including cost implications, to develop a recommendation package enabling Valeo to make an informed choice of location.

During the lease attestation process RSW Partnership negotiated with contractors to establish final detailed design layout, costing’s and sourcing agreements to assist Valeo budgeting process and to reduce lead in times.

Upon lease agreement RSW Partnership gave instructions to the domestic contractors via appropriate tender documentation to secure contracts and purchase orders enabling commencement of the construction process.

The Commission

RSW Partnership is appointed “The Delivery Agent” and manages the programme in compliance with its QAS Plan of Work and is engaged under an Association of Consulting Engineers commission.

The construction implementation shall be delivered through a traditional “Design and Build” contract with specialist suppliers fabricating elements of the build off site to ensure built out is completed out of season.