Evans Jones and Big Sleep Hotel win prestigious award

• Posted by Karyn Middleton on 31st Mar ’08 at 10:54 BST
• 0 comments

Evans Jones, the local firm of surveyors, architects, planners and access consultants, was called in when entrepreneur Cosmo Fry of the famous Fry’s Chocolate family decided to convert Cheltenham’s former Inland Revenue offices in Wellington Street into a new hotel.

Now the chic 62 bedroom property has received a Cheltenham Civic Society award for the restoration of a building or structure, during the annual civic awards ceremony at the Cheltenham Town Hall on March 26.

The judges said: “This award marks the transformation of a previously dingy and unattractive former employment agency into a bright and welcoming hotel through comparatively simple measures.

This was a commendable example of breathing new life into a tired and unloved building and a welcome addition to the town’s facilities.”

Cosmo Fry said: “We appointed Evans Jones to provide an architectural design service that would support our strategy of creating a hotel that is modern, daring, practical, uncluttered, fresh and hip and they provided exactly what we set out to achieve.”

John Everitt, Head of Architecture at Evans Jones said: “The hotel has become known as ‘retro-chic’ using clean, crisp lines to enhance the sense of openness and space within the rooms, creating a fresh, stylish and uncluttered appearance.

We look forward to continuing to work with The Big Sleep Hotel in Eastbourne, and also potentially in Brighton, Bournemouth, Southampton and Exeter.”

Conversion of The Big Sleep Hotel in central Cheltenham took just over seven months to complete, with the hotel opening at the beginning of December 2006.

Further information

The Cheltenham Civic Awards are organised by the Cheltenham Civic Society on behalf of Cheltenham Borough Council. Nominations are submitted by various parties including owners, architects, builders and members of the public, and are assessed by an independent panel of ten, appointed by the Civic Society, to represent a cross section of the community.

Cosmo Fry’s brief to Evans Jones specified the need for a design which would create the following:

• clean and simple rooms that provided the essentials needed for either the short term business user or the weekend visitor
• a stylish interior befitting a hotel with a higher star rating but at budget prices
• innovative design solutions and a vivid pallet of colours and materials
• a finished product that stands out from the crowd amongst its contemporaries in the two star hotel sector
• revitalizing a redundant building which was a wasted resource in the centre of the town bringing new customers to the surrounding bars and restaurants in Cheltenham.

Further information can be obtained from John Everitt at Evans Jones on 01242 531415 or john.everitt@evansjones.co.uk.