A visually striking new pub designed with potential for future development
Client
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd.
Location
Portishead, Somerset
Contract Period
March 2012 to November 2012
Contract Sum
£2.1 million
Portishead is one of several pubs that we have designed for West Country Brewers, Hall & Woodhouse and which addresses the need for new pubs to extend a welcome to a wider, more inclusive demographic including families, the elderly and non-drinkers, with more flexible opening hours. All without losing their essential character as one of Britain’s most enduring institutions, both for its social as well as economic value.
The pub’s design reflects its location and the Dockyard’s industrial heritage, and challenges notions of what a contemporary pub might look like
Portishead is a dramatically contemporary pub on the quayside of Portishead Marina, formed with recycled shipping containers housing a variety of functions and offering flexibility for future development.
The pub’s design reflects its location and the Dockyard’s industrial heritage, and challenges notions of what a contemporary pub might look like. Modern construction methods are combined with traditional materials and techniques and classic, natural materials to create an attractive venue that expresses the progressive spirit of the new developments around the historic dock and provides a popular focus for the social life of the new community.
Designed to be highly sustainable, the building comprises a two-storey, fully glazed, concrete-framed structure, flanked with 28 recycled shipping containers that accommodate the private dining and meeting rooms, toilets, staff accommodation and Marina facilities.
Interiors are arranged across the two floors to include a bar, pantry with long bench style seating and a common room with soft seating and roaring fires. A dining room upstairs features an open kitchen and views of the marina.
A further phase of development is planned, adding three storeys of hotel rooms above the pub and restaurant once these operations are properly established. The containers are ideal for the cellular nature of the future hotel rooms and offer form a strong visual link with the Dock’s industrial past.
Portishead was awarded CAMRA’s new build pub of the year award in 2013, the first year since 2006 that they believed they had found a project worthy of the award.
Winner of CAMRA Newbuild Pub of the Year Award 2013