Set within 15th and 16th-century Grade 2 listed buildings, The Peppermill Town House Hotel, Restaurant & Wine Bar is an award-winning dining location for guests seeking that boutique atmosphere. It sits in the heart of Devizes, a historic market town with a wealth of Medieval history and architectural heritage. The hotel provides luxuriously-appointed accommodation to its customers with the addition of a 2AA rosette restaurant. Offering contemporary British meals and focusing on locally-sourced and seasonal ingredients, it is accompanied by a wine and cocktail bar that reached The Trencherman Guide’s Best Bar List for the South West.

The Client and The Project

While the team at the Peppermill Town House Hotel have already managed to establish a glowing reputation for themselves both locally and with passing visitors, the time had come to expand their catering and dining facilities to facilitate their new function room and 14 luxury rooms. The client wanted to transform an existing ground-floor space into a brand new multi-purpose kitchen that could accommodate both events catering and a new tapas-style lunchtime menu.

With extensive experience in commercial kitchen design and installation, the Aspen Services team were delighted to be contracted on this project. It was no small feat by any measure. The work would include a full interior renovation as well as the furnishing of an outside courtyard to provide seating for an additional 60 covers. We also needed to take into account the existing decor and atmosphere of this well-established brand, ensuring we provided a space that worked functional and aesthetically at the same time.

The Journey

After the initial design and equipment specification project had taken place, our team prepared themselves to delve into the refurbishments. Unfortunately, this coincided with the start of the second National Lockdown here in the UK. This meant that we were restricted by requirements for personnel safety and social distancing. Where normally, our sites would be a bustling hub of activity, we were limited to just 2 members of staff on-site at any given time. Fortunately for us, the client decided to utilise this time to undergo refurbishment elsewhere in the business and was closed for the vast majority of our time there which limited exposure.

Once we were able to proceed, the job encompassed everything from new floors, walls, ceiling, plumbing and services through to the installation of a brand new kitchen ventilation and extraction system. We also leant on the experience of our design team and a multitude of subcontractors to create a comprehensive list of bespoke fabrications. For the courtyard, our team sourced light goods and consumables that fit the needs of this client exactly and supported their goals for diner growth.

The Challenges

Aside from the lockdown restrictions, the most challenging aspect of this project was the structural integrity of the Grade 2 listed building. Many of the walls were constructed from Wiltshire sandstone. This required a specialist approach when it came to cladding the walls with WhiteRoc UPVC wall cladding. On top of this, the external ductwork needed to match all existing aesthetics in order to conform with Permitted Development Rights. It had to be powder coated in a bespoke matt-black coating that matched the guttering and kept the new addition in keeping with the old features.