A new pub reflects local heritage and provides a social focus for an emerging community
Client
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd
Location
Peglars Way, Swindon SN1 7DA
Date Completed
February 2019
Contract Sum
£3.4 Million
This new contemporary pub built for West Country Brewers, Hall and Woodhouse, has created an enormously popular focus for the emerging community of Wichelstowe, a new town of 4,500 houses near Swindon. Not since the years of mass post war construction has this county been engaged in the building of new pubs.
But, as the country currently tries to solve the housing shortage by building new communities, they in turn need new pubs. As new neighbourhoods are being built, there is an increasing role for pubs to be the anchor and catalyst for community cohesion and genuine placemaking – a social facility that naturally and quickly creates a focus for residential and business communities.
At Wichelstowe, the pub is “spread” along the canal bank under a dramatically shaped “serrated” roof that expresses the full variety of internal spaces. These include a full-size canal barge that provides private drinking areas within the bar.
The roof form alludes to the historic boathouses and workshops that used to line the canal, recalling Swindon’s industrial heritage, before it became a railway town. However, the traditional roof form has been gently tweaked to create a highly contemporary profile that gives the building the architectural presence that its civic purpose requires
The building is framed in steel and oak, using much reclaimed material, with all materials left in their natural state, unpainted and able to develop the patina of age. Furnishing and fittings are highly eclectic but often allude to the canal heritage and the quaint “Rose & Crown” style of decoration that is a unique symbol of Britain’s canals. The naive and crafted character of this decoration strikes an unusual and beautiful chord alongside the bold contemporary structure.
The impact of the dramatic building form and the warm glowing interior is magically doubled by its reflection in the canal, particularly after dark when viewed from the opposite bank of the canal.
Wichelstowe is as warm, tactile, cosy and comfortable as a great pub should be, but the dramatic architecture and roof that expresses the variety of internal spaces gives the venue a highly contemporary form, and a welcoming approach, that clearly signals the pub’s role as the centre of the community in the new town of Wichelstowe.
This combination of a strong architectural presence and warm glowing interior has created an enormously popular focus for the new community of Wichelstowe and a very profitable venue for their hosts.
Wichelstowe was awarded CAMRA’s 2020 new build pub of the year accolade, making Mackenzie Wheeler the only practice to have achieved this award twice. The judges praised their commitment to individual, location-specific design.
