A new pub and restaurant forms the focus of a major regeneration project on the River Thames.
Client
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd
Location
Taplow, Buckinghamshire
Date Completed
March 2023
Contract Sum
£3.5 Million
This new bar and restaurant, built for family brewers Hall & Woodhouse Ltd, is located on the banks of the River Thames at Taplow. It forms part of a larger regeneration project by Berkely Homes, repurposing the site of a former gasworks, which in turn replaced a historic boatyard.
The brief requested a new bar, café, and restaurant to capitalise on the hugely attractive site on a historic reach of the Thames. The building was to be eye-catching, maximise river views and evoke the traditional qualities of boathouses and sunny days boating on this popular stretch of the Thames. Accessibility and an appeal to all was essential.
The location in a flood plain on an old gasworks required the building to be raised over a void above the natural ground level. Once this technical challenge was resolved the main design challenge was to reference both the traditional vernacular while also creating an exciting, modern, and engaging destination that would offer a variety of spaces for a wide range of users and occasions.
The building is composed from several elements that follows the story of the historic boatyard. This started with a workshop and blacksmith’s forge, brick built with an open fire and chimney stack at the centre of the building and was then expanded over years to add a design office, materials stores, and boathouses. This story then informs the style and decoration of the internal spaces.
Purple stock brickwork with diaper brick detailing forms the core of the building. This is flanked by timber clad steel and oak framed bays, two storeys to the north where the upper floors provide staff accommodation over kitchen and dining areas, and a single storey to the south where it creates the entrance and bar.
The roof pitches extend dramatically to the south and west elevations to provide covered seating areas overlooking the river. Traditional red clay tile hanging to the gabled roadside elevations reference the vernacular style of Taplow’s architecture and embed the building within its historic context.
