9 March 2022 By Fran Williams. Photography by Hufton+Crow

The practice has transformed The Alice Hawthorn, an isolated community pub threatened with closure, by renovating the existing Grade II-listed building and adding 12 guest bedrooms

The pub is in the North Yorkshire village of Nun Monkton, where the Rivers Ouse and Nidd meet and historically an important northern trade hub for the Medieval river transport network. With the increase in road travel, fewer travellers passed through, leading to its demise as a trade and social point.

The Alice Hawthorn is now the village’s last pub and in recent years its future had come under threat

The architect, working closely with Harrogate Borough Council and the local community, has added 12 ensuite guest bedrooms to the pub: four on the first floor of the existing building and eight around a new courtyard, which extends the village green into the pub’s rear garden.

The layout takes inspiration from the Norse ‘garth’ – a grassy cloister or clearing in the woods – and aims to create a sense of quiet enclosure. This is reflected in the character of the various informal farmsteads surrounding the green.

Home-grown Douglas fir-framed buildings use agricultural building materials, including galvanised corrugated steel roofing and larch cladding. Double member ‘cloister’ columns have stainless-steel feet atop cast concrete up-stands.

The new timber frame buildings include the Sheds, Field Barn, Stables and Tack Room. The Sheds is a single-storey infill building between existing brick outbuildings with two staff bedrooms. The Field Barn is a south-facing, two-storey structure with four guest rooms. The lower level is clad in larch while the upper level is sinusoidal galvanised steel.

The Tack Room, a single-storey structure with a wheelchair accessible guest-room, sits adjacent to the west boundary and also provides cover to the outdoor kitchen and pub garden bar. Finally, on the east boundary, the Stables is a single-storey extension structure with three guest rooms. To contrast with the traditional pub interiors, the new-build elements do not have plaster lining.

The main challenge was developing a one-hour fire-resisting timber frame wall within 1m of the site boundaries. This was resolved by employing a fire-resisting sheathing internally, avoiding carbon heavy blockwork.

Creating an innovative new economy around assets such as the village pub is essential to the health and wellbeing of any rural community. The tranquil village of Nun Monkton lures visitors from afar to see the tallest maypole in England and one of the last remaining working greens in Yorkshire. Before our client took ownership in 2013, the pub struggled commercially and had even closed for a period in 2007. Despite significant investment in a new kitchen and the wholesale refurbishment of the ground-floor pub spaces, it was not yet a sustainable business. To become solvent long term, it needed to increase its appeal to a broader audience. Therefore, the brief was to provide tourists, as well as the local community, with a high-quality but affordable basecamp from which to enjoy the surrounding landscape and visitor attractions. Angus Morrogh-Ryan, director, De Matos Ryan 

We were very excited with the shape of the plans as they evolved, and the finished result has exceeded our expectations. We have 12 beautiful guest bedrooms, every one of them perfect in its own way. The beer garden has been flanked by the new buildings, making an atmospheric, sheltered and relaxing place to enjoy a pint and a tasty plate.  The buildings, imagined as agricultural stables, stores, and barn, work brilliantly in our setting, and I have no doubt will get even better with age and weather. However, best of all, our guests love it, and the sense of pride exuded by the staff is wonderful. Since reopening, business has never been better. Kate Harpin, client and Nun Monkton local

Start on site January 2019 Completion date July 2020 Gross internal floor area 905m² Gross (internal + external) floor area 3,620m² Form of contract or procurement route JCT Standard Form of Building Contract Construction cost £2.95 million Construction cost per m² £3,260 Architect De Matos Ryan Client Kate and Richard Harpin Project manager R Pickering Quantity surveyor Aspect 4 Structural engineer Price Myers M&E consultant P3r Acoustic consultant Gillieron Scott Acoustic Design Sustainability consultant Award Energy Principal designer De Matos Ryan Approved building inspector Harrogate Borough Council Main contractor Gem Construction CAD software used MicroStation, SketchUp

Overall area-weighted U-values Roof 0.18 W/m2K, exterior walls 0.18 W/m2K, windows 1.4 W/m2K, curtain walls 1.4 W/m2K, ground floor 0.12 W/m2K Airtightness at 50Pa 9.06 m3/h.m2 Heating and hot water load Ground source heat pumps for heating and hot water Predicted regulated energy use 217 kWh/m2/yr Predicted on-site renewable energy generation 217 kWh/m2/yr Predicted potable water use 110l per person per day Annual mains water consumption 770 m³/occupant

Tags De Matos Ryan Harrogate

nice scheme – and well done AJ for getting outside the M25 – there are only son many house extensions in Hoxton that warrant close attention….

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