Everard’s Print Works was a complex project that comprised of 3 listed buildings and a vacant office block which was made up of seven linked blocks ranging from 3 to 8 storeys totalling approximately 116,500 square feet. The main office block was constructed in 1972 and was designed by Alec French.
The brief was to repurpose the recently vacated NatWest Court office complex into a mixed-use scheme comprising of 255 rooms for a 4* hotel, incorporating conferencing facilities and a gymnasium. The brief also included a small number of retail units and 24x 1-bed and 2-bed residential units. The final development aimed to bring back activity into the historic quarter of the Old City which was adversely affected by disuse, disrepair, anti-social behaviour, poor lighting of pathways and consequent lack of human activity.
Residential
Due to the scheme’s haphazard floor plan, it was logical to convert unconnected blocks into separate uses. Most of the smaller satellite blocks were selected to be converted into residential units in order to break up the scheme into a more coherent arrangement, allowing the main block to be converted into the hotel use.
The block furthest to the East and furthest to the West were converted into 24x 1-bed and 2-bed apartments with hidden entrances providing good access to the surrounding urban landscape with close proximity to Broadmead. The residential blocks blend in well with the hotel scheme to provide an extra layer of security.
Historical
Everards Print Works is located at the transition point between the twentieth century interventions in the city and the old medieval quarter. This is where the historic city melds into post war development. Many of the post war buildings surrounding the site, and the NatWest Court part of the site itself, having been designed by Alec French Architects in the 1970s.
The entire complex is comprised of 3 buildings: Edward Everard building, 34-36 Broad Street and the main office building. The Edward Everard building forms the main hotel entrance from Broad Street. The Edward Everard façade is listed as Grade II* due to its beautifully decorated art nouveau tiled entrance and historical merit. The entire site is located within City and Queen Square Conservation Area and is in close proximity to the College Green Conservation Area and St Michael’s Hill and Christmas Steps Conservation Area.
Four further buildings of historic significance abut parts of the NatWest Court building, namely: Church of St John The Baptist and St John’s Gate (Grade I listed); No. 1 John Street (Grade II listed); Bank Public House (Bank Tavern (Grade II listed); The Employment Exchange, Nelson Street (Grade II listed).
The printworks itself had a Bristol Byzantine brick arch façade running along John Street with an ornate tiled façade on Broad Street paying homage to the Arts & Crafts and printing pioneers William Morris and Johannes Gutenburg. Remains of these works include the Art Nouveau façade; a small portion of the building behind and a section of the red brick building at No.1 John Street. Demolition of the majority of the Art Nouveau building occurred in the 1960s.
The proposals were developed with incredible sensitivity in order to preserve the external appearance of the heritage assets while also extending and retrofitting the dated 1970s office block.
Working with 3 properties that were listed Grade II or Grade II* was a challenging constraint but provided the scheme with unique assets and great opportunities to celebrate Bristol’s historic past. As designers, we concluded that the Art Nouveau façade would be a fantastic entrance to the hotel, helping to restore the printworks to its original entryway.
Considerations to the neighbouring sensitive assets were also made in order to allow the building to remain subservient in it’s context such as only single storey extensions.
Retail
The principal part of the scheme is the transformation of the disused office block into a 4* hotel for Dalata Group. The complex geometry and layout of the scheme made this a tricky and challenging task but soon proved to be a clear example of the potential of re-use buildings. The hotel features a ground floor restaurant, that will connect to the many existing pubs and bars on Broad Street, a stunning atrium with spiral staircase that occupies otherwise wasted void space, and some hidden but grand conference spaces.
Like most of this scheme, the overarching ambition was to transform the area around Broad Street and Nelson Street into a more affable place following its much disuse and attractiveness to anti-social behaviour. One small part of the scheme was to introduce retail units alongside Nelson Street in order to tie together the project to neighbouring retail outlets and extending Broadmead shopping centre. The Print Block retail unit that is being introduced will help to cement the project into the urban grain of its context.
The final development aims to bring activity back into this quarter of the Old City, which has been adversely affected by disuse, disrepair, poor lighting of paths and consequent lack of human activity. The addition of new retail units along Nelson Street and Little John Street by the Old Bank Tavern pub have had this exact effect.
Mixed Use
The proposed uses and design interventions are intended to reinvigorate the immediate public realm while providing new employment and living opportunities. The proposals involved a Change of Use from an Office to a Hotel, Apartments, and Retail. The new extensions included the hotel atrium, an extension to form the hotel kitchen and the hotel roof-top extension. The existing buildings were retained with a series of one-storey roof top extensions introduced where appropriate to the hotel. These were sensitively planned and designed. Carefully planned landscape and public realm works complement the development responding positively to the building’s appearance and setting. The scale of the development, alongside the sensitivity of the area and urban fabric, made this an incredibly challenging project.
