Hall & Woodhouse’s innovative scheme for a Pub and Hotel at Portishead Quays, based upon a design by architects Mackenzie Wheeler, took as its basic premise the renovation and re-use of metal shipping containers. The project sold itself, but the planning role undertaken by Walsingham Planning was important insofar as the scheme had to move some distance from the original concept envisaged in the masterplan for the area.
The Hotel and the building’s consequent increase in height represented new elements which added to the scale of the development and the pressure on local parking facilities. In the event, the Pub/Restaurant was approved and has since won a design award for best new-build Pub.
The scheme is representative of an increasingly busy work area for Walsingham Planning, namely the provision of guest rooms in association with Pubs and Restaurants.
The old-fashioned concept of an Inn, where you can find a meal, a drink, a bed and somewhere for your horse, has been lost in the mish-mash that is Class A of the Use Classes Order; but in commercial terms, it is making a strong recovery.
Many of Walsingham Planning’s long standing clients are at the forefront of this revival, even if they are not so good with horses.