28 Market Place, Somerton

Integral have completed 28 Market Place, Somerton, Somerset. A Grade II* listed, fine dining destination venue. The project comprised a group of Grade II* listed buildings in the picturesque town of Somerton in Somerset. The existing building was a complex mixture of original 17th century fabric with newer extensions in the back courtyard and some separately owned accommodation above part of the building. Our initial task was to work out what was structurally or architecturally significant and pick out the areas where the structure was starting to fail. We had to work carefully because some areas where contaminated with asbestos. The underground drainage was complex having been altered many times over the years. Removing the poor quality courtyard extensions allowed us to put the key modern building functions in a purpose built space. This relieved the pressure, structurally and architecturally, on the remaining 17th century building, allowing us to work gently with it. As is often the case we did not attempt to bring the structures up to modern standards, instead we used a risk assessed approach using realistic loads appropriate to the use rather than “catch all” modern standards which would have required inappropriate strengthening of original fabric.