THE WATER TOWER
THE WATER TOWER
A delightful yet redundant Victorian water tower outside the charming East Sussex village of Hartfield would likely continue to deteriorate without intervention and co-operation from the planning department. But now it is set to be re-purposed providing ancillary accommodation to an adjacent house. The ground floor will give additional family space, a games room and toilet, whilst at first floor a study will be built with stunning views of surrounding countryside.
Plans include demolishing the attached store in order for it to be rebuilt with timber cladding providing the additional ground floor space. The single-storey games room will be topped with a grass roof with local species and the apex of the roof will open to the room below giving additional natural light.
With a relatively small footprint to the existing tower, stairs would significantly reduce available floor area to the first floor. Instead a bespoke timber stair is planned acting as a ‘folded plain’ beginning at ground level within the tower but exiting through the side and rejoining the tower at first floor. The stair will sit within a glazed link allowing the tower to be viewed as a single object, and the new games room joined by this link.
Work commenced in October 2015.
