Timeslip as hidden glories appear in old Nightingale hotel upgrade
Built on the advice of Florence Nightingale, The Rest Hotel has stood above Porthcawl’s picturesque bay for almost 150 years. Abby Bolter was invited to see how it’s being given a new lease of life
STEPPING inside the imposing yet dilapidated Grade II-listed building in Porthcawl is like travelling back in time.
With every corner turned and corridor walked there’s evidence of how this sprawling mansion served countless individuals over the years.
In the early days it provided miners with a welcome seaside break before it became a hospital for wounded and traumatised allied soldiers from both world wars. Latterly it was a holiday hotel for older people, as well as the base for a charity treating service personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health difficulties.
But falling custom and wear and tear left the management committee facing an uphill financial struggle to keep it going. Its last occupants and almost 50 staff left in 2013.
The building was then bought by Gary Mayo, director of Bryn Meadows Golf, Hotel and Spa, near Caerphilly.
But it has stood empty with only pigeons as residents while plans for its future were drawn up.
Developers Acorn now hope to start work later this year once a revised planning application has been approved.
But preparatory work to ready the landmark for conversion to 34 apartments and the demolition of old annexes to make way for a new building, which will house an additional 35 apartments, has begun. metal water tank which filled Acorn’s regional managing the void beneath it. director, James Groombridge, Now it is being included in the said stripping out plans for the apartment below it and asbestos, old and defunct will become a unique study space. lifts and chipping away “The absolute key for us is to keep years of plaster, extra walls an open mind and keep looking at it,” and peeling off layers of said James. “It’s easy to have a vision wallpaper has revealed and stick to it.” further glories in an As the unusual features, including already stunning beautiful stone-arched doorways and building. stained-glass windows, which were Once such architectural hidden behind walls, have been feature is a uncovered, Acorn has sought to whimsical square include them in its plans so they will wooden tower be retained for generations to come. stretching up from Beautiful green tiles which stretch the top floor, which almost the entire length of the bottom still has the original corridor had been plastered or sash windows at papered over. the top. Unusual and robust original wooden The developers doors remain on many rooms and had no they will be retained, although where idea it was they will be used depends on how there until they match up to modern-day fire they safety standards. removed It’s this clash of passion to retain as the enormous much of The Rest’s history as possible, while ensuring the building meets modern standards that has made the project so challenging. “It is a hugely complex project making sure you get it right and the costs are manageable,” said James. “We spend days and days just walking around the building with the project team and architects making decisions.
“The first thing we had to do was strip it back so the building could breathe and then we uncovered lots of features that had been hidden, like doors that no-one knew were there.”
While the building itself, which was constructed in three sections between 1878 and 1909, is fundamentally sound, the various additions were not.
One conservatory on the front had sprung so many leaks that grass was growing on the carpet inside.
An ugly metal fire escape attached to the front also has to go, as did the balconies, which although an original feature, were too dangerous to keep.
They will be replaced with glass balustrades.
And the discovery of various porches and doors after the removal of extensions meant plans were amended so the apartments won’t have one main entrance hall now, but their own separate and rather dramatic entrances.
Out-of-place white uPVC windows fitted in the most exposed aspects at the front will also be replaced with more sympathetic high composite aluminium window frames, under agreement with Bridgend Council’s conservation officer.
James said Acorn is working closely with the council, which he praised for its help, to ensure as many as possible of the old features remain and they will even replace some of those that had been taken out – including more doors – during the building’s various incarnations over the years.
It was Dr James Lewis who came up with the idea for The Rest in the 19th century as he treated miners and other industrial workers in Maesteg.
Realising they needed a break from damp and cramped working and living conditions, he opened the first Rest at cottages in Newton.
His wife, Charlotte, then wrote to Florence Nightingale to get her advice on building a bigger facility, and thanks to rich industrialist benefactors, including the Talbot family of Margam and the Brogdens, The Rest was born.
Providing posh apartments for welloff clients – the studio, one-, two- and three-bed apartments will cost between £150,000 and £500,000 – was not what Dr Lewis would have envisaged for the building.
But instead of disintegrating further, The Rest is being given a new lease of life in a £5m to £6m project that’s got the developers, as well as the locals, excited.
“There’s a huge amount of love for the building,” said James, who added he thinks many of the apartments will go to owner-occupiers rather then all becoming holiday lets.
The next stage will be to get the building re-roofed and new windows fitted before winter. It’s also hoped the first of the new properties will be ready for occupation next summer.