As well as the design and fit-out of the Bike & Boots 64 bedrooms, the project included common areas, bar, residents’ lounge, film club and restaurant.
The Bike & Boot was once a row of Georgian terrace houses and retained much of the original architecture. Even now, the envelope of the building remains true to its heritage.
It made no commercial sense to strip back and replaster the walls. Rather than hiding the faded grandeur of the original building, we worked with it and gave it a new lease of life.
Striving to be local as far as possible, we employed craftsmen and suppliers from the area who were passionate about harnessing their skills to revitalise this once grand feature of the Scarborough seafront.
Their work included bespoke case goods, reupholstering furniture, sourcing local photographs for bedroom doors, creating graphic blinds using original railway poster designs and producing wall mounts featuring bicycle seats and handlebars instead of the traditional taxidermy heads.
Other bespoke items in the hotel on Cliff Bridge Terrace include clocks made of brightly coloured bicycle bells and flip flops; bespoke lights created from old bike wheels and crates.
We also designed a bespoke handle for the residents’ lounge based on the ampersand between the ‘Bike’ and ‘Boot’. Creating expectation and greeting guests in reception, is a feature light made from several pairs of boots that have racked up a few thousand miles between them!
A Georgian inspired colour palette was used to paint over the old anaglypta wallpaper giving the rooms a new identity and feel. In addition, we designed and commissioned wallpaper based on activity maps of the area and recreated posters of original postcards of Scarborough from its heyday as a fashionable spa resort.
If you have been walking or cycling all day, you want to be able to relax and feel at home, and we sourced bar furniture with that in mind – some of it was new, and some of it was pre-loved and repurposed. A skilled tradesperson can upholster an old chair, and by choosing fabric of the right quality and design, the result looks great and provides the luxury of comfort. In keeping with our green ethos, the design also gave a second life to the metal back-bar of an old venue in Leeds.
We are thrilled with what we have achieved with the Bike & Boot. From a design perspective, it is all in the detail, and we certainly had fun with this project.
All images are copyright and kindly supplied by Bike & Boot Inns.
