Salthouse Harbour Hotel Phase 1

Structural Engineer: MLM Consulting Engineers
M&E Engineers: C.H. Lindsay
Interior Design: Trevillion Interiors
Acoustics Consultant: Sharps Redmore

Gough Hotels is a family run group of leisure amenities which includes The Angel in Bury St Edmunds and, until recently, Southwold Pier. In the early 2000’s Gough Hotels recognised the potential of the Ipswich Waterfront which until then had remained largely undeveloped with industrial buildings standing idle.

Central to the waterside frontage a Victorian warehouse, the John Good Building, had remained largely unaltered, retaining the open floor plans and low ceilings typical of this building type. Gough Hotels acquired the building and commissioned Barefoot & Gilles to convert and extend it to create a Four-Star Boutique Hotel.

The conversion involved carefully dismantling the upper two floors which were then rebuilt to match existing but with the higher ceilings necessary for comfortable hotel bedrooms. There is a minimum level of accommodation required for a viable hotel and to achieve this we constructed a lightweight ‘pavilion’ which gave an additional two floors without overloading the building’s foundations. The result is a building with a very distinct character and a ‘face’ that is immediately recognisable along the waterfront.

We worked closely with Trevillion Interiors to produce modern luxury hotel bedrooms which nevertheless retained the industrial character of the original building. The cast iron columns of the warehouse structure have been retained and throughout the building the choice of fittings, furniture and colour palette has been made to be evocative of travel to exotic places.

Suffolk Association of Architects Design and Craftsmanship Award