The Sweet Taste of Success at Cadbury House
27/05/2007

Nestling in a hillside above the small Somerset village of Congresbury is Cadbury House, once the 18th Century home of the Marquess of Ailesbury and now home to one of the largest independent health clubs in the UK. Just 10 miles outside Bristol and 10 minutes from Bristol International Airport, the 14 acre estate was bought by Simon Matthew-Williams in 2004. Now, nearly £15m later, it boasts a conference and banqueting centre, health club, spa and a bar restaurant - all to be joined in April 2007 by a 62 bed 3 star hotel.

The challenge set to Manchester based architects Tyler Designs and contractors Multibuild has been to blend the Georgian splendour of the original house with the new developments that proudly proclaim the latest high tech facilities, not just in the cardio vascular gym equipment (all with built in TVs), or the feature showers, saunas and steam rooms, but also in the stylish lounge bar. Here, a series of booths each with their own LCD TV screens enable guests to enjoy their meal and their entertainment at the same time. During the football world cup all these booths were booked solid for the England games.

Another aspect of the high tech approach is the use of a personal key control for the fitness equipment. Members are issued with a key that is pre-loaded with their agreed exercise programme and all they have to do is insert this into any of the equipment and it will automatically set itself up for their needs. It also keeps a record of calories burned, distance travelled and kgs lifted so that print outs can be produced on a weekly or monthly basis to show progress towards individual goals. Cadbury House believe they are the only club in the South West to be using this system.

A lot of thought has gone into creating a highly modern, but slightly quirky character to the whole site to make it more welcoming and to give it personality. Private access doors are not marked “Strictly No Admittance” but simply “No” with public doors marked correspondingly “Yes”.

Like other trendsetting organisations, the style of the washrooms is used to make a statement about the overall image of the facilities. Marked minimally G or L, washrooms are also signposted by wall mounted display cases containing quintessentially male or female items such as shoes - sequined sandals to indicate the female washroom or a black brogue for the male.

A stunning stainless steel washfountain takes pride of place in the vestibule outside the male and female washrooms in the lounge bar. Shared by both sexes it provokes comment and discussion and yet is both space and water saving. Members and non-members alike are full of praise for the novelty of this approach and it’s proving particularly popular with younger children now eager to wash their hands rather than having to be coerced. The washfountain was supplied by Relcross from their Bradley range. The five station 915 mm (36") stainless steel bowl has infra-red flow control, a thermostatic mixing valve and a liquid soap dispenser. The total flow rate of only 7.56 litres of water per minute for 5 users provides considerable water savings compared to the typical 12 litres per minute for a single user controlled wash basin. And of course there’s only one hot, one cold and one waste pipe to connect.

Operations Manager Lee White is delighted with the choice of the Relcross Washfountain. “It fits in perfectly with the character we’re trying to project for the whole site - stylish, modern, extremely efficient and aesthetically stunning. Everyone seems to like it and it’s helping to make us different.”

Relcross have also supplied the soap dispensers throughout the rest of the property including those for complimentary shampoo and conditioner dispensing in the individual shower cubicles in the executive changing rooms. These areas also feature TV’s, music, large lockers, fully-equipped vanity areas, swim suit dryers, family and baby changing areas.

Despite only opening a couple of months ago they already have a membership of 2,400. Their target is 3,000 despite a nominal capacity of 4,000 to ensure that facilities do not become too crowded and so to preserve the quality of the experience of a visit to Cadbury.

 

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