A RAILWAY carriage could return to the old Hockley Viaduct as a cafe for cyclists designed by a Winchester teenager.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Grice, of Woodfield Drive, designed the cycle cafe for the railway bridge near Garnier Road during classes with young architects’ project Spud Youth.

The cafe could be used as a “social hub” for local bike clubs, offering hires, repairs, food and drink and a place to relax along the route.

Pit-stop designs like Alex’s could boost tourism in Winchester and get more people on their bikes, an impressed town forum heard last week. (Sep 24).

Cllr Chris Pines said: “We were blown out of the water by some of the designs. They were absolutely fabulous. Your railway carriage – it’s going to happen.”

Alex even found a £2,000 buffet car for sale on eBay in a bid to convince councillors that they could keep costs down.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Alex Grice's design for the cycle cafe at Hockley Viaduct

Eloise Appleby, assistant director of economic prosperity, said the Spud pupils’ designs were “perfectly realistic” and may be combined to build a cycle cafe.

“They’re a fantastic organisation to work with,” she said. “They’re really creative, practical and very good at delivering what they’re coming up with.”

She will meet with Spud Youth director Mark Drury next week to discuss the next steps in setting up a cycle cafe.

Former Kings’ School pupil Alex said it would be “incredibly exciting” to see his design become a reality.

He said: “It would be really awesome to see an idea come to life and get a real taste of what the world of architecture was like.”

Mark Drury said aspiring architects like Alex would gain useful experience from working on real designs with local authorities.

He said: “Imagine at 16 years old to go ‘wow, something got built that I instigated and drew the initial designs for’. To take that on in his portfolio for uni applications and stuff is just phenomenal.

He added that Spud, which operates all over Hampshire but left Winchester last year, would be interested in returning to the city if they could secure funding.