mount pleasant

Location: Tunbridge Wells
Client: Rydell Properties Ltd
Status: Planning Permission Granted
Value: £50 million

RIBA competition-winning scheme on contentious site
Panter Hudspith Architects won the project for a challenging corner location in the heart of Royal Tunbridge Wells, on a site with considerable level changes. 

Evolving mixed-use brief
Since winning the competition both the brief and site have expanded to include 9900sqm of retail, 7200sqm of office space and a 137 bedroom hotel.

Key site on important cross-roads
at the junction of Mount Pleasant Road and Church Road. It is a short walk from the historic Pantiles and the commercial heart of Tunbridge Wells.

Planning consented despite scale within historic setting
Extensive consultation resulted in a scheme that responds to the challenge of placing a large modern development into a finely grained historic environment ,with clusters of retail and hotel accommodation used as a device to humanise the scale of large commercial floorplates.

Exploiting level changes to enhance connection to context
The corner of the site provided an opportunity for a new public space relating to the adjacent town hall and Grade II listed Lloyds Bank, whilst the development itself contains two raised landscaped courtyards, to provide views of the Tunbridge Wells Common beyond.


Visuals
JustViz

Publications
2008
Building Design Magazine - Panter Hudspith's forthcoming attraction for Tunbridge Wells
AJ Online - Panter Hudspith is the star of the silver screen in Tunbridge Wells