SWWIC were delighted to welcome Jackie Gillespie (Director & Co-Founder) and Catherine Busutill (Project Architect) of Gillespie Yunnie Architects alongside WWA Project Manager, Josh Heath, on a unique site visit to Melville Building and to hear about how the Royal William Yard has been developed over the past decade or more.
Members and guests met within the atrium of Mills Bakery and were greeted by tea and coffee with a fantastic selection of pastries sponsored by WWA and baked in-house by Block. The presentation begun with a brief history of the RWY buildings, which are considered to be one of the most important groups of historic military buildings in Britain, and the largest collection of Grade 1 listed military buildings in Europe. The Melville building, also Grade 1 Listed and the focus of our visit, is the striking centrepiece of the Yard with its iconic clock tower and incredible views across the marina. It forms one of the final pieces in the refurbishment programme which begun in the late 90’s and is continuing today.
Melville tenants currently consist of boutique cinema operator ‘Everyman’ and restaurants Hub Box and Pho. It also includes ‘BLOCK Plymouth’ an operator providing co-working spaces, café & bar plus a gym.
Invitees were accompanied around the building, whilst given an insight into some of the more fundamental construction issues and how these were dealt with in conjunction with understanding the constraints required in bringing this historic building back to life. Afterall, who would put a cinema on the 2nd floor of an historic building with timber floors with all the issues of fire separation and acoustic treatments…!?
Thanks to everyone who attended and to our speakers Jackie, Catherine and Josh.
