Client
Ric Hawley
Location
Hotel Du Vin, Henley-on-Thames
About
This was a major project for both ourselves, our clients and for Henley-on-Thames. The Henley Brewery was sold to our client who had sufficient confidence in this Practice to take a risk and instruct us to seek a detailed planning permission for this historic town centre site which involved the conversion of Grade II Listed Buildings standing within the Henley Conservation Area on the edge of the Thames Flood Plain to create a boutique hotel, basement parking and multi storey apartments, together with revamped retail units on Thameside and B1 Commercial Units in the Old Bottling Factory.
This Practice acted as lead consultants, working with a specialist hotel architect nominated by Hotel Du Vin.
The application was the subject of public meetings within the town centre involving the Henley Town Council, the Henley Society and other interested parties where we took part in the presentations together with the Client.
Despite thorough negotiations with Senior Planning Officers and the Conservation Officer at South Oxfordshire District Council the application was recommended for refusal but was unanimously approved by the Development Control Committee following presentation to committee members by JCE and the CEO of Hotel Du Vin.
The Client then successfully built out the scheme and the new hotel has made a significant contribution to the tourism and restaurant facilities as well as increase local employment in Henley.
“I have spent several years on several projects working with Jeff Emmett and his team. We achieved many successes with the different projects, none of which were straight forward as they were all Listed Buildings.
It takes a special skill to negotiate through the minefield of Listed Buildings which we tackled and JCE brings a particular blend of commerce, architecture and town planning together which was successful on every occasion.”
