Malmaison

Reading’s Great Western Hotel has stood opposite the station since 1844, built – almost certainly to a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel – as one of the first purpose-built railway hotels anywhere, and reputedly the oldest to survive today.

Matrix Consult was appointed to bring the Grade II listed building back into use as a 75-bed hotel for Malmaison, working within the constraints a building of this age and status demands. The brief called for a historically sensitive renovation: modern hotel standards throughout, without losing the features that earned the building its listing, or its claim to the oldest surviving station hotel in the world.

Working on a Grade II listed building in the centre of a working city meant coordinating specialist conservation input alongside the usual demands of a 60-week, £9m refurbishment – logistics, access and deliveries all constrained by a tight city-centre site directly opposite Reading station.

Matrix Consult acted as employer’s agent and quantity surveyor, holding cost and programme together while the original fabric and period details were retained rather than replaced.