THE MAKING OF NO. 15
How long have you been in the hotel trade? 34 years
What do you love most about the industry? I love looking after guests and the staff. I love the people, the creative side, Bath as a destination and particularly creating places in our hotels that people really want to come to.
What made you invest in Bath? The location. If you look outside of London, it’ s one of those cities – like Oxford, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh – that has really good business during the week as well as on the weekend. Bath is a great university city with a really diverse mix of businesses.
What was your vision for No. 15? We always wanted to make No. 15 the most frequented and talked about boutique hotel in Bath, and to be known as a great independent, with a great cocktail bar, neighbourhood cafe and spa. We came across the tagline‘ Luxury for the curious’ and we developed that in everything we did, so that guests can walk around and see things that they weren’ t expecting to see.
Who have been your key partners in getting the project off the ground? We teamed up with Kennick Builders headed up by Nick Mizen and Matt Greevy from Imperial Preservation, who’ ve provided all the building work. On the interior design side, it’ s been a collaborative effort of our own vision and that of Martin Hulbert Design and we’ ve also asked local interior designers Woodhouse & Law and Rossiters to help us design some of the rooms. Moss of Bath have provided our AV, we’ ve worked closely with Mytton Williams and Ignition on branding, Systemagic for our IT and technical support and local wine expert Angela Mount has helped us craft a wine list we’ re really proud of. We’ ve used Ed Bulmer’ s heritage paints throughout; commissioned renowned glass artist Adam Aaronson to create a few different pieces and Paul Freddy Payne to make unique porcelain lights, as well as working closely with local and up-andcoming artists.
What’ s been the biggest challenge? Keeping control over expenditure. Although that said, we did give ourselves a fairly unrealistic budget to do it. As we’ ve lived with the building and got to know it more, we had a window of opportunity to change things to make them as we would really want them; such as moving the lift and making the ladies much more spacious than first intended … Working with a Grade-I listed building and ensuring all the works are done to the specifications required and managing noise in a project of that scale in a local neighbourhood, has also been challenging at times.
Have you worked with local suppliers and if so, who’ s been involved? As well as those already mentioned, IronArt of Bath did all the repair work to the iron and made the afternoon tea stands. Hawker Joinery. Decorator Kevin Austin. Beaufort Joinery, based just outside of Bath. We’ ve also been working closely with artists from Bath Spa University as well as local schools... the list is quite long!
Where does your passion for art come from? I’ ve always loved interesting art, so it’ s a combination of my experience in hotels and visiting exhibitions growing up. In the corporate world, art in hotels is( usually) incredibly boring and yet it’ s the one thing in the room that can make a big difference.
I really enjoy finding pieces which are interesting; pieces that stand out and get people talking. We’ re very lucky to have lots of up-and-coming artists with Bath Spa University on the doorstep.
What are your personal favourites in the hotel? The kaleidoscopes; Adam Aaronson’ s‘ Reed Series’ of hand-blown glass lights and screens; the pot collections, dotted in the Pulteney Room, ladies’ powder room and some of the bedrooms. All the different chandeliers and the scales of chandeliers.
How’ s business been so far? Very encouraging. We’ ve been delighted with the support from the residents of Great Pulteney Street and the locals, and the excellent reviews to date.
What can you offer the local business community? No. 15 is very central and a really quirky and different venue for meetings, private dinners and it has a great neighbourhood restaurant
open during the day. Bar 15 is great for winding down in too.
What’ s next for the hotel and the Kaleidoscope brand? To get the additional 17 bedrooms finished. We expect to have eight of those finished by the end of February. The final phase will be the spa which will have five treatment rooms, a sauna, hot tub area and a relaxation room which will have a bar, so you’ ll be able to indulge with a glass of champagne or a G & T.
As for the Kaleidoscope brand, we certainly wouldn’ t rule out another hotel opportunity, either in Bath or in the South West.
Memorable meeting space in the heart of Bath
An art hotel with creativity at its core, No. 15’ s event spaces lend themselves perfectly to networking over fizz and canapés, decadent dinners and coming up with big ideas. The Pulteney Room, with its views over Great Pulteney Street, is ideally suited to groups of up to 18, while larger delegations of up to 40 seated, and up to 60 for drinks, can take up residence in The Dispensary.
No. 15 Great Pulteney
www. no15greatpulteney. co. uk
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017 23