I was once lucky enough to sit next to Thomas Hetherwick at a dinner. He, if you've forgotten, is the man that designed the Cauldron at the London Olympics last year. He's a very clever yet understated man...immensely likeable. I mentioned to him that I was a south coast resident and he whipped out a scrap of paper, and began drawing on it. This was the sketch for a new beach cafe in Littlehampton. In some ways it felt like a minor reflection of the legend that Sir Alec Issgnosis drew the original design for the Mini on a cigarette packet.
Littlehampton is typical of many an English seaside resort. A bit down at heel and with many residents stuck in a 1950s time warp. So it came as a bit of a surprise that Thomas Hetherwick's design for the cafe was accepted....even now there is much opposition in the town, but with inevitability of biological laws, I guess that will eventually die out.
I happened to be there earlier this week, so took some pictures of the cafe, and also the nearby bench sculpture.
