Blog: SECBE Awards 2022 finalist - Burrell House

31 March 2022

Conservation & Regeneration

Burrell House (submitted by Ridge and Partners LLP) 

Conservation & Regeneration Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2022 Finalist

Completed in September 2021, this wonderful project involved the refurbishment of Burrell House, a derelict and unsafe Victorian residential building over three floors and a basement level in the grounds of the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, to form the new Winchester Hospice.

Winchester Hospice is designed as home for the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s palliative care team, providing compassionate, specialist care for up to 10 inpatient residents. The client wanted an acute healthcare facility where the look and feel would be more like a boutique hotel, so that residents feel at home. Ridge achieved this while conforming to stringent healthcare and sanitary requirements.
There was no dedicated hospice in Winchester before this project completed; the available options were hospital admission or a hospice several miles away. Burrell House provides a well-equipped and pleasant environment locally for people who live around Winchester, easing the burden on residents and their loved ones.

The en-suite bedrooms are the homes within which patients will spend their last weeks, and the places where loved ones will experience their last interactions with those residents. Ridge designed these to be comfortable and restful, with neutral and calming tones, brightly coloured panels and artworks, wood-effect flooring, varied lighting options, attractive views and abundant daylight. The family room is important for similar reasons; it overlooks the beautiful garden, which is fully accessible to persons of restricted mobility.

While it was important that the building be functionally efficient, versatile and able to accommodate staff needs, the primary focus was resident centric. Key services, including lighting and heating, are within the residents’ control. The building is accessible to all. It includes a bariatric suite, in which Ridge ensured persons of restricted mobility would be comfortable. Rooms are unisex and fully accessible.

Ridge recommended refurbishment because of cost, aesthetics and optimum use of available footprint – Burrell House is an attractive heritage building, and meeting NHS regulations for a new building would have required a larger footprint.

The building was in danger of collapse, so Ridge instigated early, staged remedial works to prevent uncontrolled destabilisation while funds were raised to undertake the main project. The easiest approach, though less cost-effective, would have been to demolish Burrell House and start again, but Ridge employed creativity and innovation to save the building.

Ridge then managed the tender process and designed and oversaw the refurbishment itself. A multidiscipline Ridge team developed the approved option in close coordination with the Trust Estate team and hospice stakeholders.

Ridge advised on the relocation and installation of a Chelsea Flower Show Gold-Medal-winning garden, including the plants used at the show. Although the garden element of the project was beyond the project's scope, Ridge provided professional advice to the Trust on its installation to help them complete the project as quickly as possible.

The building is fully adaptable for other clinical purposes or for hospital bed space (it is fully compliant in-patient accommodation); it was used to provide extra bed space for the adjacent hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key achievements:

• An attractive Victorian building has been saved and given new purpose; without this project, it would almost certainly have been demolished. The easiest approach, though less cost-effective, would have been to demolish Burrell House and start again, but Ridge employed creativity and innovation to save the beautiful Victorian building and equip it to provide a suitable home for Winchester Hospice. The project turned a dilapidated Victorian residential building into a 10-bed, fully compliant hospice offering diverse modern medical services meeting all NHS HBN and HTM criteria, within a strict budget, while giving a boutique hospitality feel to help resident patients feel at home. 

• There was no dedicated hospice in Winchester before this project completed; the available options were hospital admission or a hospice several miles away. Burrell House provides a well-equipped and pleasant environment locally for people who live around Winchester, easing the burden on residents and their loved ones.

• As a charity-funded project with an important social role, Ridge and Partners put in extra effort to ensure its success, including advising on the garden installation (which wasn’t within the scope), enabling safe site visits by stakeholders and donors and producing a 3D image for the Trust to use for marketing. Ridge facilitated and took part in several fundraising events.

Client: Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Project's Partners: Ridge and Partners LLP, Reside Construction, Winchester Hospice

Find out who wins at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2022 Ceremony on Thurs 30th June 2022.

>> Find out more about the other Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards finalists here