Pizzeria Romana
Project Decsription: Following a fire in April 2019, the very popular ‘Pizzeria Romana’ was for all practical purposes completely destroyed. The fire itself and the water damage from the fire service actions to put out the fire and then the subsequent rain damage rendered the existing internal structure essentially un-salvageable for all but a few key structural elements. Externally the original façade was still relatively intact and a key element of the design / restoration and rebuild was the retention of this façade.
The existing building was Grade 3 listed and the site context of existing building and the site is defined by building to three sides and the street frontage.
The client brief was clear, put back what was there previously. The Historic Environment Team brief accorded with the client aspirations. However, the rebuild presented significant challenges in terms of the construction practicalities and the current building byelaws as clearly the original building usage, layout and general arrangement had developed over a period of many years. The single sided access, the stepped entrance, the lowered ground floor and the restricted headroom defined by the original floor levels, the external doors and window arrangements and the original roof profile all presented significant design challenges for the design team in delivering this project.
The restaurant is now fully operational and previous customers, returning now will recognise the superficial differences in the restaurant layout as through the design process the public stair access was reconfigured and repositioned, the toilet provisions and the bar restaurant servery facilities have been improved.
These obvious improvements, whilst necessary to the functionality of the restaurant only represent a partial aspect of this refurbishment and rebuild project and the success of this development needs to be assessed on many levels. Due to the condition of the original party walls being deemed un-suitable for any new loadings a new steel frame has been incorporated into the new design. The floor levels, whilst essentially being retained have been adjusted in areas which now defines a raised area to the rear of the ground floor and provides a single level throughout the first floor restaurant area
