Understanding the brief

You have asked for forty-two rooms. We think you are asking how a building that has been altered eleven times can be made to feel as though it was never altered at all.

What was asked

A full interior scheme for forty-two guest rooms across three floors. A refurbishment of the Long Room as a dining and event space. A treatment for the garden colonnade. Phased delivery, with the hotel trading throughout. Budget indicated at £4.1m, programme fourteen months.

What we think is being asked

The brief reads as a refurbishment. The building reads as an argument. Ashgrove was extended in 1868, 1904, 1931 and 1978, and each layer apologised for the one before it. The real question is not what the rooms should look like. It is which of those alterations you want the building to keep telling the truth about, and which you would rather it quietly forgot.

Assumption 01

Grade II* listing restricts intervention above first floor to reversible works.

Assumption 02

Trading continues throughout. No floor closed for longer than nine weeks.

Assumption 03

The 1978 extension is unprotected and may be treated freely.

Note

Survey drawings are dated 2019. We would re-measure before Stage 2.