Spectacular party launches new era for landmark

A spectacular party has officially launched a new era for a Victorian Gloucester landmark carefully recreated after a disastrous fire in the 1990s.

Gloucester’s Mayor, Councillor Sue Blakeley, pressed a button on Tuesday evening to floodlight the new clock face in the Clock Tower at Abbeymead, also the trigger for a firework spectacular.

It followed a video presentation on the history of the building including the appearance of a DeLorean time machine to emphasise the party’s “Back to the Future” theme that outlined the history of The Clock Tower and how its new use had come about.

Many local people turned out to enjoy the event, which was attended by more than 60 guests from the local business and civic community as well as people who had been directly involved in the creation of the building’s new use.

The Clock Tower, originally a hospital administration building and now fronted by public parkland, has been the focus of a £3.7 million project that has seen the building restored and new wings added either side to provide 24 new apartment homes.

The fire in 1999 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 the 24 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 complete the new Clock Tower building, which is now proudly capped by the restored and refurbished Clock Tower itself.

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 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.

The show apartment at The Clock Tower was opened on February 10 and already 10 apartments have been sold. The remaining homes all have two bedrooms.

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.