A Victorian Temperance Inn, Reimagined
Location: Wraxall, North Somerset
Project type: Hospitality interior design, boutique hotel rooms
Temperance House sits in the North Somerset hills, about fifteen minutes outside Bristol. It is an easy place to fall for. The building was designed in 1880 by William Butterfield, one of the most significant Victorian architects of his generation, for Anthony Gibbs of the nearby Tyntesfield Estate. Built as a temperance inn for estate workers, it has since been a village hall, a pub, and then empty for a few years. It is now Grade II listed and in the middle of something new.
The owners are turning it into a six-bedroom boutique hotel, with meeting spaces, a café and six individually designed guest rooms opening in autumn 2026. Tyntesfield itself, now National Trust, is just down the road.
Working Together
We have been working on the concept for the guest rooms for just over a year, in close collaboration with the owners and their architects. The brief was clearly defined from the start, and the process has been genuinely collaborative. We are also mindful to draw on local artisans and suppliers where possible as the project moves into delivery.
The Rooms
Each room is named after somewhere in the surrounding landscape: The Ashton, The Cleeve, The Failand, The Backwell, The Portbury, The Farleigh. The design takes its cue from that same instinct. There is a nod to the building's heritage throughout, but the interpretation is modern and warm rather than period pastiche. Panelling, texture and wallpaper are used thoughtfully, scaled to each room, with materials and patterns drawn from the nature just outside. The connection between inside and outside runs through everything.
The six rooms are individually designed but not disconnected. A wallpaper that appears in one room returns in another colourway. A tone carried through one space surfaces as a detail in the next. Some of the building's existing furniture has been kept and worked into the scheme, grounding each room in the history of the place rather than erasing it. The intention is that guests feel the coherence without necessarily being able to name it.
www.temperancehouse-bristol.co.uk