Building a more beautiful Bath
The cityscape of Bath is renowned as an architectural gem for its historic buildings. But do you know who restores, adapts and adds to this beauty today? Bath Bespoke has been nominated for the Creative Sector Business of the Year at this year’s Bath Business Awards for just this reason. Working with conservation trusts they have helped protect and add to the beauty of Bath through their furniture and joinery services. This involves restoring and creating new windows, doors and interior wall panelling. Their portfolio includes a roll call of iconic listed buildings, such as The Circus, The Royal Crescent, Bath Abbey and Cleveland House – which was picked by The Sunday Times for its ‘Homes to Lust After’ feature. James Etheridge, Bath Bespoke director, explained how the company took on this personal mission. “Through growing up and living in Bath, we’ve been extremely fortunate to admire and learn about Bath’s incredible architecture and history. “After training as cabinet makers, we noticed a gap in the market for bespoke high quality furniture that complimented the amazing and varied architecture in the area. “We established Bath Bespoke to fulfil this demand and have been dedicated ever since to creating bespoke luxury interiors that not only match the beauty of the city, but can be enjoyed for generations to come,” James said. Since James and co-founder Tom Jones-marquez launched 10 years ago, Bath Bespoke has expanded rapidly, moving from a garage with just two employees to a fully operating workshop with 20 highly skilled joiners and carpenters. “Despite our expansion we have stayed true to the aim of our business which has always been to make beautiful high-quality furniture in a sustainable way,” explained Bath Bespoke’s Jessica Gay. This includes running their workshop on solar power, only using quality FSC certified timber (sourced locally where possible), utilising eco-friendly oils and turning all of their waste timber into heat energy using a wood burner. “On top of this, we have continued to support and promote other local businesses like ourselves to ensure Bath’s independent spirit is kept alive,” Jessica added. Last month they even supplied free flooring to help Bath City Farm set up a new cafe. Bath Bespoke’s client base has grown rapidly during the past year, including both private homeowners and trade clients. Their services have also grown as they move to focusing more on whole home renovations rather than smaller one-off jobs. They are currently developing a larger flooring range which will allow clients to customise everything from board width, wood species, texture and colour finish. On top of this they are in the process of renovating a new showroom next to their workshop in Winsley for clients to explore their works and discuss project ideas with designers. Just as it was a decade ago, it’s still all about the customer, Jessica explained. “Crafting beautiful bespoke furniture is the core of our business, but without our clients we wouldn’t be where we are today,” she said. “We always put our clients first. This is evident by the fact that all of our reviews from customers have been five stars and we’ve won the Best of Houzz customer service award three years running including in 2018.” Looking after their staff is also a top priority for Bath Bespoke. “Our employee retention is high and we’re proud to offer a happy and supportive place of work, Jessica said. “We hold annual performance reviews and set attainable targets which employees are able to meet. This keeps morale high and ensures our team are motivated and enjoying their work. “We also have a job succession scheme in place to help our employees develop their skills and experiences and move up the career ladder.”