ELEPHANT AT THE MARKET, NEWBURY

Shortlisted for Restaurant and Bar Design Awards 2016

Located in the historic town of Newbury, The Elephant at the Market, previously The Queen Hotel, is now a stunning "pub with rooms" playing host to 14 en-suite bedrooms, a restaurant and bar.

Photo's by Ben Carpenter Photography

Concorde BGW were briefed to fully re-furbish this listed building, including all 14 bedrooms and the restaurant. We were also enlisted to create a larger, more interesting outside seating space. Re-working the existing spaces within this Listed Building, we created an atmospheric bar and dedicated restaurant area positioned around a wood-burning pizza oven, a key theatrical piece in the art of dining. The bar counter and pizza oven is a stylistic combination of black stained timbers mixed with bright brass fittings to add a contemporary feel.

As the building was listed we had to be mindful of any extensive structural work and couldn't make huge changes to the existing internal infrastructure. Though no challenge is too big, this left a long thin corridor and unusual nooks and cranny's for us to incorporate into the design scheme for the restaurant and bar. We naturally turned this into a positive and created a bespoke booth seating structure that spread the distance of the corridor and boats an adventurous cage feature held together with shipping rope.

We also introduced reclaimed timber cladding to the skylight above the restaurant which makes for an interesting feature and bathes what would have been a dingy corridor in bright sunlight all day long. Reclaimed materials and furniture were used throughout the site.

The 14 en-suite bedrooms all boast king size beds and treat guests to modern twist on a classic English country house aesthetic with all mod cons added for comfort.

Use of reclaimed timbers also applies to the bedrooms to create authentic, purpose-built headboards. In other bedrooms - we positioned distinctive decorative wallpaper adding blasts of colour and depth to the scheme. The bedrooms also each have individually designed wardrobes and desks created out of a combination of coloured metal frames, timber shelves and desk tops. The traditionally tiled en-suite bathrooms and charming vintage baths complete the luxurious experience of a night at The Elephant.

Utilising part of the existing carpark, we created a discrete larger seating area for the garden. The feature piece is an up cycled shipping container complete with booth seating, reclaimed materials and lighting. Raised beds divide up seating areas with herbaceous plants and timber frames.