Design Engine Architects

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Gable End of Extension

The Fox

location:
Crawley, Winchester
client:
The Fox Pub
role:
Architecture
Interiors
sector:
Public & Leisure
status:
Completed 2019

Refurbishment and extension of a long-established pub and restaurant

Design Engine have completed the refurbishment and extension of The Fox, a long-established pub and restaurant in the village of Crawley, near Winchester. The project, a collaboration with Paul Cashin Architects, sought to restore and redevelop the 17th-Century grade II listed building which had lain empty and unused for over two years and re-establish the pub as a thriving business at the heart of the community.

Dining Room
Detail of extension

The Design

The design is based around sympathetically renovating the existing property, bringing it to a suitable useable standard, while celebrating and restoring many of its historical attributes. Alongside this, a new contemporary extension has been constructed that takes the form of a series of three articulated pitched roofs, reminiscent of rural and agricultural vernacular forms. These are arranged to provide a connection with the outdoors and create the impression of a series of interconnected outbuildings around walled courtyard garden spaces. The new structures are dressed in a black stained timber cladding.

This has been an unusual project for us, but we could see that the listed building displays a genuine architectural integrity which we wanted to work with when considering its extension. The decision was made to simplify the new in order to amplify the existing and we think it has worked well.

Rod Graham, Design Engine Founding Director

The project incorporates a bespoke bar area, two large dining rooms – one of which features vaulted ceilings and dual aspect glazing opening to the courtyard gardens, a fully functioning commercial kitchen, outdoor terraces and wood-fired pizza oven, as well as five high-end ensuite bedrooms available for overnight stays.

The re-launch of The Fox has been hugely popular with locals and visitors alike, becoming once again the vibrant centre of the village and making a positive impact on the local economy through increased employment opportunities.

Structural Engineering and Drainage: Andrew Waring Associates

Photography: Richard Chivers