Godstone Farm
Nursery & Restaurant

Type: New build, Fit-out & Refurbishment
Duration: 36 weeks
Value: £2.4m
Architects: Stickland Wright
QS: Bonds
M & E: The Richard Stephens Partnership

Well loved children’s farm invests in
outstanding new facilities

When Godstone Farm recognised they needed to regenerate their facilities, ITC were the ideal choice for this space optimising project. The addition of a day nursery and restaurant has turned the farm into an even more attractive proposition to local parents and has created new revenue streams for the farm.

Reconfiguring old spaces creates new opportunities

We converted an existing farmhouse into an Ofsted-standard day nursery, creating a new lettable space for the farm. We fitted-out the space for Kids Play Ltd, to their exact specifications and are pleased to report that this unique day nursery was massively oversubscribed before it had even opened!

Purpose built restaurant and industrial kitchen

We also constructed a new purpose-built restaurant for the farm, creating a modern space for visitors to enjoy a spot of lunch. We fitted a bespoke industrial kitchen and built a servery and accessible WCs. The building boasts some impressive green credentials from the ground up including a ground source heat pump, efficient ventilation and extraction systems, all this with the added bonus of low running costs.

Stakeholder engagement – children, foxes and bats!

Health & Safety was a key consideration on site as we needed to keep the site secure and safe to protect young children, but also the local wildlife!

Wildlife surveys were carried out to identify the area for protected species such as bats, but also to identify any other hazards in and around the building sites. We responded to the environment by adapting and building facilities that protected the natural wildlife. Including leaving ladders in excavated areas to prevent badgers and foxes getting trapped in trenches overnight.

The building works also became an attraction for the farm’s visitors. We created a specialist hoarding featuring giant chalkboards and created window cut outs so the children could view the diggers and the works being carried out. The children had lots of fun drawing their favourite farm yard animals and watching live construction work!