Old Lodge Cafe, Dyrham Park

nr Bath

At Old Lodge a new café, toilets and ice cream servery have been created in the existing Grade II listed stone and timber agricultural buildings. Alongside this the external areas at Old Lodge have been redesigned with dedicated outdoor seating area, new play equipment and planting. As part of this project access around the parkland has been improved with the most heavily trafficked routes strengthened to prevent damage and erosion of the listed parkland landscape.

Working within the listed agricultural buildings the aim was to minimise impact on the historic fabric and repair them in a manner sympathetic to their past use. In repairing the existing structure, the philosophy followed what centuries of farmers would have done to repair the barns, by using simple repairs such as adding new rafters alongside deteriorated ones.