A seafood restaurant located at a harbour in Kent is to take its aquatic themes to new levels, by being located inside used shipping containers.
The Whistable Oyster Company has been granted planning permission to use the repurposed containers for a seafood outlet called The Old Engine Shed. It is so named due to its location on the site of the engine sheds once used by the Crab and Winkle Line railway, which was dismantled in 2009, Kent Online reports.
However, there will be nothing about the new structure, which will replace the temporary structures presently on the site, resembling an engine or a shed. The new site will include outdoor seating and provide a panorama across the town’s harbour.
The proposal did face a couple of objections, but these were to do with the number of commercial enterprises in the harbour, not the use of recycled shipping containers.
Indeed, the project is virtually identical to its predecessor that gained planning permission in 2017, but lapsed after the pandemic delayed the project.
The planning submission highlighted the use of the containers as a nod to the industrial heritage of the town and a means of promoting sustainability, stating: “It is proposed to use recycled shipping containers which have been successfully re-used elsewhere for a variety of purposes."
Indeed, many companies looking to buy a used shipping container will be motivated by the potential benefits that can come from recycling a structurally robust container.
The use of an old container as a catering outlet is certainly not unique to Whitstable, with examples to be found the length and breadth of Britain.
Not many places in the UK are further from Kent than Aberdeen, where a recycled shipping container is forming the centrepiece of a new café opening at the site of the former Cults station, the Press and Journal reports.
Local businessman John McKenzie has revamped the site as The Boxcar, a food and drinks outlet located ideally for walkers on the Deeside Way.