ABSTRACT
The contemporary Haberdasher’s is as much rentable conference venue as club or ancient guild, demanding a balance between these disparate roles. Hopkins deals with such issues and the site by forming a central, 20m cloistered court dominated by the barn-like volume of the main hall that is on axis to arriving visitors — who then turn right and are taken up to the principal accommodation on a piano nobile via a spiral stair. Soft red brick, limestone and oak are predominant materials.
