Riverstation Restaurant, The Grove, . Bristol Harbourside, England.
Conversion into a 250 cover restaurant

Royal Fine Art Commission Trust and Sky B Sky Building of the Year Award 'Jeu d'Esprit'
Civic Trust 40th anniversary Awards - commendation
Civic Society Award

The former river police station on the historic harbour wall has been completely re-modelled and extended to create a light and spacious 250 seat restaurant with magnificent views over the waters of the inner harbour.

A fully glazed stairwell takes diners from ground level to the upper seating area with its dramatic curved roofs and sweeping balcony on the water's edge.

In the late 1990's, after celebrating 20 years of running a successful small restaurant in Bristol, Shirley Anne Bell and Peter Taylor decided the future lay in larger premises. We were asked to look for a site, and after two feasibility studies elsewhere in the city we found the old river police station.

The site is located in the city centre, within walking distance of the business district, theatres, arts venues and proposed leisure Millennium developments. Good adjacent public parking is available and, unusually for a dockside location in Bristol, the freehold was for sale.

We prepared a feasibility study showing that conversion and extension of the 290sq metre existing building could provide a 535sq metre, 250 seat restaurant on 2 floors, an increase of usable ground and 1st floor areas of 84%. This required flooring over the existing internal slipway and dock and extending the 1st floor over the old flat dock roof. The restrictive cellular plan of brick structural walls needed to be opened up.

Provision of a 1st floor balcony provids 45sq m of valuable external seating area overlooking the water and exploiting the southern views across the docks. A similar deck is extended over the quay at ground floor level and both are accessed by outward opening glazed doors, which provide enclosure and some shelter on windy days.

Solar shading is provided to the south facing glazing by the balcony projection over the ground floor, and a fixed canvas awning over the first. The awning is streached across curved ribs extending from the building to an upward extension of the handrail balusters.

link to riverstation website www.riverstation.co.uk

1st floor south facing terrace provides an extension
of the dining area in good weather.

The new roof enclosing part of the upper restaurant
is over an orginal flat roof of the police boat dock.