The regeneration of Buxton Crescent is the most amazing project. Sitting in the centre of the historic town of Buxton, Derbyshire, the Crescent was built between 1780-89 as the centrepiece of the Fifth Duke of Devonshire’s plans to establish a Georgian spa town in Buxton. Grade I listed, it was originally built to include two of the UK’s first Georgian Hotels, designed to attract the great and good away from Bath and up to Derbyshire to take the thermal waters. Alongside it sits the Grade II Listed Natural Baths and the Pump Room.
The buildings were vacated in the 1990s due to their deteriorating physical fabric. An extensive round of consultation then followed with the local community regarding their future use. Out of this, the Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa Project emerged to refurbish the buildings into a new spa hotel complex. As such, they would play a pivotal role in delivering the wider aspirations to regenerate Buxton as a spa town to attract both domestic and international visitors.
Three Winning Facts:
- The “restoration of the decade” – rescuing the iconic Grade 1 Listed Georgian Hotel at the heart of Buxton and giving it a sustainable future.
- The regeneration and complex extension of a unique thermal water spa complex; whilst at the same time ensuring that construction works did not affect the springs and the supply of Buxton thermal water for bottling!
- Delivering a project with, at its heart, a true private / public sector partnership – determined and committed to see it succeed, despite it taking more than 20 years.
