What you use your pension fund for is entirely up to you, but property traditionally has always been a sound investment. In this case, our client used a portion of that fund to build prestigious offices on existing farm buildings.
As part of the Lamport Estate, these grade two listed converted stone barns now house some fantastic offices with magnificent views across the valley.
Set next to the Swan public house that serves great food, and with its lovely pub garden, they provide a great place to work, as well as entertain clients or chill out on that warm sunny afternoon.
Lamport Hall has some fantastic history, which in itself adds a real kudos to these buildings:
- Lamport Hall was the home of the Isham family from 1560 to 1976
- The first house was built by John Isham, a younger son from a Northamptonshire family, who made his fortune as a merchant
- In 1655 his great-grandson, Justinian, commissioned John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, to add an extension to the parlour-end of the Tudor house
- The five bay section, an example of Renaissance-inspired classicism, is now at the centre of the garden front
- Justinian’s son, Thomas, went on a Grand Tour in 1676 and many of the paintings he purchased during this time can still be seen at Lamport Hall
- In 1732-40, Francis Smith of Warwick was employed to add wings on either side of Webb’s building
- The remnants of the old building were swept away in 1819-21 when a new dining room was built on the site of the Tudor hall to the designs of Henry Hakewill. In 1861, the entrance front was remodelled by William Burn
- The last member of the family to occupy the house was Sir Gyles Isham, an actor and historian
- Sir Gyles left the house to the charitable Lamport Hall Trust
Working with listed buildings is always a challenge, so if you need help with your project please don't hesitate to give us a call.
I can remember the day when we were first asked by a quantity surveyor that we had been working with on another project down in London, if we would be interested in barn conversion work to turn some existing farm buildings into offices.
At that time, back in 1997, this was a massive job which was quite daunting. After meeting the owner, Mark Adams, and showing him some of the other barn conversions that had resold at great prices, he offered the project to us.
Mark was so pleased with the completed project that since that time three further barns have been converted to offices. He even asked us to do the work on his own house building new guest bedrooms and a bathroom.
His latest project being 10,000 square feet of an existing grain barn, which we stripped and converted to form four luxury air-conditioned office units.
If your looking for assistance with your barn conversion, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Recently we developed eight new bungalows within the beautiful grounds of Uppingham Grammar School.
It is a perfect location, as it’s only a short walk into the centre of the old market town of Uppingham, where every Friday they have a fantastic market on the square.
As part of the planning conditions the new bungalows were only to be sold to the over 50s.
As a result careful consideration had to be given in ensure:
- good access
- usability
- keeping a distinctly high level of style
- high quality finishes.
Each Bungalow had a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom/wet room and a second bedroom, main bathroom, and a large open plan area with the kitchen/dining/lounge area.
The finishes inside include pine doors, painted walls, painted torus skirtings and wood work.
Easy to clean wooden floors to the kitchen/dining/lounge and hall areas, with carpet to the bedrooms and non-slip flooring on any potentially wet areas.
The en-suite, wet room and main bathroom had to be designed with easy access in mind.
To ensure the residents had an easy to clean kitchen, the doors were vinyl wrapped to give a painted shaker look. Plus there were beech block work surfaces and stainless steel appliances.
If you’d like some expert advice on retirement homes, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Just two weeks into the the barn conversion project and you can see the progress is happening.
Harry was so pleased with the work we did on his house he asked us to look at refurbishing his barn as well.
Take a look at the barn before it’s been started and chart its progress
