GALLERY | Insall to fore in South Yorkshire restoration project
A £5m heritage project has been completed at Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham, led on by the York office of Donald Insall Associates.
Often described as Britain’s largest house, Wentworth Woodhouse is twice as wide as Buckingham Palace, with close to 125,000 sq ft of living space.
The project Insall worked on was the restoration of the grade two-listed Camellia House, which has been restored, and opened as a teahouse earlier this month.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund was the largest contributor to the scheme, providing £4m, with Historic England also pitching in. The project fits within a larger restoration programme across the estate.
Donald Insall, which also recently won a Civic Trust award for the restoration of the grade one-listed Hardwick Old Hall near Chesterfield, is in expansion mode, boosting its offer in the Yorkshire and North East property markets with investment in the heritage team.
Signalling its intentions, the firm last year brought in Rebecca Burrows to the York studio, which has been working on projects including the recently completed Design Guide for York City Walls and a management plan for Hexham town centre in Northumberland.
The team has also championed local collaboration within the real estate sector by establishing a monthly property and construction networking event, First Thursday, for industry professionals.
Formerly the head of heritage and townscape at Lanpro, Burrows also previously worked at Purcell and has played a pivotal role in major developments including Bootham Park Hospital, Leeds Victoria Quarter, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Manchester Town Hall, and Castlefield Viaduct.
Engaged as associate heritage consultant with Donald Insall, she said of the firm’s work in and with the city: “The city of York has an indefinable ‘Yorkness’, characterised by its human-scale, quality of architecture and warmth. This has developed over the centuries, not through preservation, but through intent, design and ideas. I’m looking forward to the collaborations that lie ahead, enhancing York’s unique heritage through contextual, bold and considered ideas.”
The York studio is headed by Dorian Proudfoot. Donald Insall as a whole has nine UK offices.
Click any image to launch gallery. Credit for all images: Donald Insall Associates
