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ADVICE | RESTORING A HOTEL SUSTAINABLY BY ODDFELLOWS HOTELS
ADVICE: Restoring a hotel
sustainably by Oddfellows Hotels
O
ddfellows Hotels delight in telling dimensions, windows and high-ceilinged
the stories and narrative of their rooms. This also meant that there was
buildings through their interiors, less need to change the building’s
restoring features and bringing history structure which made the build less
back to life in a whimsical and inventive invasive and ultimately more sustainable.
way to engage and delight their guests.
All three original staircases were kept
As such, during the conversion and rather than using the space to create
restoration of Bruntwood Hall, Oddfellows more bedrooms. Original room sizes were
Hotel’s second hotel on the outskirts of also retained rather than increasing the
Manchester which opened in April 2017, volume of rooms.
there was the opportunity throughout
The challenges faced in the
the build to use a sustainable approach restoration of the hall were mammoth,
– reusing, restoring and recycling original but were approached in a measured way.
features within the hotel. The building had been left with little repair
Architect, Tim Groom, took a ‘minimal
for almost 10 years and needed internal
intervention’ approach to the project. structural work - with priority placed on
The dimensions of the Hall were kept not destroying ceilings or original features.
as authentic to their original layout to
The tower at the front of the Hall
allow the guest to retain the sense of (which houses the Bridle Suite) was
history and occasion a visitor would have discovered to be structurally unsound and
felt in Victorian times, through the large needed to be pinned in place. The team
were intent on saving the original features
– they were crucial to the success of the
project and so restoration work had to
be carefully achieved without ruining the
integrity of the building.
The success of the project has been
defined by the restoration – the ceilings
in The Galloping Major, The Stud Room
bar, The Pigsty are all retained as is
the original Victorian tiled floor in the
grand hallway. Care was taken not to
‘over restore’ this floor but instead to
polish what was there without replacing.
The main staircase that holds court in
the hallway did not conform to building
regulations in terms of its height.
Instead of replacing it with a pastiche
replica, a modern glass panel was
constructed behind it. The stained-glass
windows found throughout the hotel
during the conversion behind stud
walls were restored and used to front
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July 2017