back to news
18/11/2009
Cartwright Pickard’s new 140 bedroom hotel High Fishergate, created for the leading business class chain Premier Inn, is the first new hotel in Doncaster centre for forty years. The high quality building is situated on the prominent junction of High Fisher Gate and Church Way, helps make the hotel a new landmark for the city, and signals the regeneration taking place in the city.
The hotel’s sleek design integrates themes of old and new, and fits well in its urban context at the interface of two scales of urban landscape. High Fishergate sits between the intimate small scale of the Market Conservation Area and the broader scale of Church Way where bigger buildings are placed such as St. George’s Church, Doncaster College and the Interchange. This larger scale fits in with the ‘Great Street’ vision outlined in the multi-million pound Doncaster City Council Renaissance Master Plan.
The innovative use of high quality materials, such as copper and terracotta in the façade, conveys the integration between old and new. The traditional, robust terracotta mirrors the natural stone in neighbouring buildings, while the copper adds a modern edge. This is the first time this particular copper product has been used in the UK. The juxtaposing lines and various lines of the building, further accentuated through the tiles and the contrasting materials, allows for different shades to form on the balconies creating a subtle visual interest.
The 3 star hotel built on six storeys offers a restaurant, 300m2 of commercial space as well as 140 bedrooms. The central court is an impressive feature of the hotel, raised by one storey that provides a spacious and airy welcome for guests. Ground floor service and plant spaces are kept to the South of the building and allow access to a small yard at the rear. At the base of the West side where the main entrance is, dramatic vertical elements that use panes of opaque glazing, mirror the image of neighbouring buildings. To the East, the building drops three storeys to keep in proportion with the adjacent church, with vertical emphasis given with the expressed structure and projecting bays.
Peter Cartwright of Cartwright Pickard Architects said, “We are passionate about regeneration, and are pleased that this new hotel is part of the next stage of development in Doncaster’s history, and that we have somehow contributed to this. Doncaster is an important city in the North East, and it deserves to have a revived architectural language to illustrate this in the City.”
The High Fishergate hotel, which opened in mid-September, has already welcomed interesting clients through its doors, including Shed, a new architecture centre that works with schools, communities and the public.
back to news