Careful restoration has recreated landmark

The Clock Tower building was part of a Gloucester hospital complex built over a period of four years and completed in 1884. It was the administrative centre of the hospital and looked out over parkland and the surrounding farm. In 1999, there was a disastrous fire in the building, all that remained of the original hospital. The fire destroyed the top of the building and the landmark Clock Tower from which it got its name.

Bach Homes, based at Uffcott, near Swindon, took over the restoration and development of The Clock Tower building in 2005 to implement the previously-approved plan to create 24 apartment homes in the original structure and new buildings alongside.

Main contractors Alumac Construction, of Stratford upon Avon, have been on site a little over a year to create the new Clock Tower building, which is now proudly capped by the restored and refurbished Clock Tower itself, a project with a total value of £3.7 million.

A major problem has been dealing with an existing steel framework within the building which has now been removed and replaced with a new structure. It is the most difficult and complicated refurbishment project undertaken by the company to date. The building is crowned by the Clock, which uses some of the original brickwork along with a GRP cap that makes it entirely maintenance free and therefore not an on-going cost liability.

New clock workings have been made by Les Kirk, of clock makers Good Directions of Wirksworth, in Derbyshire, fronted by a face replicating a design by Charlotte Frasca, of Upton St Leonards, who won a competition for a new design that received 50 entries. A plaque bearing Charlotte’s name and design is in the foyer of the new building.

A major aim of the project has been to return this landmark building to its former glory while creating the new homes and this has been achieved by a great deal of team effort.

It is now fronted by a newly created public amenity park named after the building. It includes more than 100 mature trees, two large meadow areas, a balancing pond, a wildlife area, and an area of grass and trees near The Clock Tower itself.

Bach Homes is fast gaining experience of building restoration projects. Its first, Maplespeen in Newbury, won a national award from the Daily Mail in 2005 as best UK development after Bach took a former office building and created more than 20 homes from it.

As The Clock Tower project draws to a close, with almost half the apartments already sold, Bach Homes is starting a fresh project at Marshfield in South Gloucestershire which will see redundant farm buildings turned into live / work properties that will help boost the rural economy.

For further information, visit bachhomes.com.