05 Dec 2018
Spratley & Partners transforms Heckfield Place into luxury country hotel
BY Lauren Heath-Jones
Architecture firm Spratley & Partners has completed a multi-million-pound renovation on the historic Heckfield Place estate, in Hampshire, UK.
Formerly a conference centre and wedding venue - and home to Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford in the 18th century - the Grade II listed Georgian house has been transformed into a lavish country hotel.
It boasts 38 bedrooms, six Signature rooms and one two-bedroom cottage, each designed to provide intimate and familiar environments for guests to relax in. It also hosts two restaurants, a private cinema, the Little Bothy spa, a wine cellar, gardens and a farm.
Responsible for the restoration of the building, Spratley & Partners made substantial upgrades to the internal structure, transforming the cramped rooms into open spaces. The firm also designed and built extensive facilities, sympathetic to the original design, and re-imagined the use of the grounds.
Additions included a structural glass link separating the manor house from the restaurant, as well as new basement area - home to the 67-seat cinema - constructed below the driveway and accessed via a sweeping stone staircase with bronze balustrades and Cotswold rubble stone walls.
Spratley & Partners was also tasked with demolishing and rebuilding previous alterations to the site, including an extension from the 80s involving a block of basic bedroom and conference facilities.
In addition, the firm created six different room-types for the hotel, each designed to make the most of the architectural quirks of the building and with the end user experience in mind.
The interiors were designed by Ben Thompson, a young protégé of Ilse Crawford, who combined a calming palette of muted greys, greens and blues with natural timber floors, bare brickwork and lime plaster walls to give the hotel a rustic feel.
Sarah Tassell, director at Spratley & Partners, said: "After an extensive programme of works, the team is very excited to see the beautiful Heckfield Place welcome its first guests."
"As well as the sensitive restoration of the historic manor house, we have made a number of well-considered interventions to allow for a greater range of private rooms and amenity spaces in which visitors can truly indulge.
"It has been important to create a subtle balance between the more public areas of the hotel, and private, retreat-like spaces, and we believe, working closely with the interior designer and operating team, that the results are a success."
Future plans for the hotel include the addition of a new spa, The Bothy, which is expected to open next year. Currently being built on the grounds, the spa will feature five treatment rooms, as well as a steam room, relaxation rooms and three training studios, offering personal training, yoga, pilates and ballet sessions.
Spa consultant Rosamond Freeman-Attwood was responsible for crafting the treatment menu, which will use products inspired by the grounds at Heckfield Place from Wildsmith Skin.
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