The Pheasantry Welcome Centre

The Pheasantry Welcome Centre is located in the heart of Bushy Park, one of the Royal Parks, in Hampton.

As part of the 7.2 million pound project to restore the former gardens and buildings of the park, it was a great honour for YKG to win the design and tender for the redevelopment of the cafe. As a turn key operations firm we took on the challenge to transform the site by designing a truly outstanding structure – which blended with the natural landscape – within a tight budget and timeline.

The main purpose of the redevelopment was to expand the centre’s capacity to accommodate more people and increase customer comfort. With efficient use of spatial planning and utilising natural materials to stay sympathetic to the surroundings, YKG were able to achieve the brief and beyond.

Considering the beauty of the Royal Parks, merging the site with the structure was a definite consideration to enrich the landscape. With a curved ceiling, this created a landmark and extension to the scenery. Placing 8 new curved skylights and 3 circular skylights into the curved roof was not the easiest of tasks but a difference it did make to the internal ambience and inviting the optimum natural light.

Over 110sqm of reinforced concrete was used for the extension and on the roof. YKG were conscious to utilise the most economical way of adjoining the current curved beams to the new inverted curved beams. A challenge was also reached when tapering the edge of the roof to make it look progressively sharper on its edges.

It was important to maintain the transparency from inside out, to be able to overlook the lake and vast greenery. By using glass sliding doors surrounding the cafe area the physical connection with the landscape was maintained.

The opening hours of The Pheasantry Welcome Centre is between 9am-6pm.