Bush Hall, Hatfield
This scheme is a restoration and re-use of the existing collection of buildings which make up Bush Hall, with the addition of two new spaces: a new link building which will be the new Dining Room, and a new standalone Function room. The group of buildings will re-open as a new Hotel and Restaurant sitting alongside the River Lea tributary.
Bush Hall appears on the 1766 Dury Andrews map as a U-shaped symmetrical house with a small – possibly earlier barn or remains of a long house – to the east. This older portion still reads as a virtually separate building within the current arrangement. It is a Grade 2 Listed Building – though one which had suffered various forms of decay since it became empty on 2009.
The layers of c20th linings and additions have been removed during a painstaking renovation and the original character and fabric revealed both internally and externally. The buildings are presented in the accompanying photographs in their shell state: this is work in progress and is due to complete early in 2024.
The new Dining Room links Bush Hall and its Coach House with a new ‘open’ kitchen, while the ground floor of the Coach House provides all the back of house facilities. The dining space is a clear open span opening up to the meadow and with a riverside terrace alongside.
The new Function Room is a steel and timber framed new building replacing an existing structure and also sits alongside the River. On its west side will be a new enclosed garden which will respond to the formality of Bush Hall and be an important space in its own right.
The new buildings use a palette of materials including glass, timber cladding and zinc roofing which contrast and complement the existing brick buildings of the Hall and Coach House: modern additions that remains distinct from the older buildings.
Many thanks to VM Zinc and Paul Kozlowski for the drone photos.
CLIENT
Gascoyne Cecil Estates and Oakman Group
YEAR
2023
Category
Commercial