Lily Hill House, Bracknell
Lily Hill House is the oldest building in Bracknell dating back to the 18th Century with some ornate period features and rooms of fine proportion. Sadly, the building had been rather badly refurbished by a previous owner who had subsequently gone out of business and the house had lain empty for over 10 years and was in a fairly poor state of repair and suffered further from a large outbreak of dry rot.
Sometime in the 1960’s a fairly large 2 storey bland office building had been built next to the house, but was completely inefficient in its layout and also in need of serious refurbishment.
Planning permission was granted for the creation of an additional 600sqm of office space with the requirement that it was not visible from Lily Hill Park itself as there were historic views over the park towards the house which was to be maintained.
Another requirement was that the existing house was to be refurbished to a high standard and the original features replaced – in this way, a greater planning gain was negotiated over the original planning brief.
The more modern office was also substantially remodeled with the creation of a new core, lift, air conditioning and modern services.
The fundamental key to the successful integration of the new office building to the period house was the creation of an atrium sat within the crook of the “L” shape which allowed the new office to flow around this space without impinging on the old building but still linked.
A new lift and services area was located off the atrium and in this way it became the hub of the newly enlarged building and allowed for better communication between all areas.
A new car park was constructed and the grounds returned to their original state based upon period photographs including the construction of a Ha – Ha.
