News

Contract Award: ​​Ightham Mote - new visitor reception and shop building

We are delighted to have won the contract to provide a new visitor reception building and retail shop at Ightham Mote, Sevenoaks.

Ightham Mote is a Grade 1 listed medieval moated manor house near Sevenoaks, Kent. The house is registered as a Scheduled Monument, with parts of the structure dating from the 14th century. Set in a landscape of formal and informal gardens with lakes and woodland, the house, and its gardens and estate have been owned by the National Trust since 1985. The Trust undertook a £10 million conservation project lasting 20 years and have to date welcomed 4 million visitors.

This project will relocate parking from the historic Walled Garden, enabling its future reinstatement. It will relocate the shop, freeing up the historic Coach House for visitor enjoyment. The new Visitor Reception and Retail building will be fully sustainable, including hempcrete walling, the installation of air source heat pumps, and sustainable surface water management. It will be appropriately designed to reflect the surroundings. Visitor orientation and welcome will be improved by additional landscaping and enhanced planting to support biodiversity.

The improved facilities will enable the estate to accommodate its projected increased annual visitor numbers, protecting the conservation of and access to this important historic house and gardens for future generations of visitors.

Ightham Mote will remain open throughout the works, with a full programme of events and activities. Please see website for details.

Image credit: Reed Watts Architects