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Thomas Heatherwick has designed a new distillery and visitor centre for gin brand Bombay Sapphire on the site of an abandoned Hampshire paper mill, which had links to the Bank of England.

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The designer of the London 2012 Olympic cauldron, whose work has also been the subject of a major exhibition at the V&A Museum this year, will renovate a 2ha brownfield site, which includes the disused Laverstoke Mill that dates back to the 18th century.

The centrepiece of the scheme will be twin glasshouses used to grow the 10 botanicals used to make the gin, including liquorice and orris root. The new distillery and visitor centre, described by Bombay Sapphire as a 'home of imagination', is due to open next autumn when production of the spirit will move from its distillery in Warrington.

This project comes 10 years after Heatherwick was named the inaugural winner of the Bombay Sapphire Prize, an international award for excellence and innovation in glass.

Heatherwick says of the project: 'We are thrilled to have the chance to take this historic site, and turn it from its current derelict state into a new industrial facility with national significance.'
heatherwick.com