The Hall & Woodhouse pub

Location: Portishead, Bristol

Design: Mackenzie Wheeler

Photo: Mackenzie Wheeler

The traditional English pub and modern, industrial architecture may sound unlikely bedfellows; but when asked to design a pub on the quayside of the historic port town of Portishead, architect Mackenzie Wheeler broke with tradition and used 28 recycled shipping containers to create a structure that accommodates Hall & Woodhouse, a pub with additional private dining and meeting rooms as well as customer toilets, staff accommodation and changing facilities for the nearby Marina.

Photo: Mackenzie Wheeler

The building has come to be known affectionately as the 'box on the docks' and it also won the Pub Design of the Year Awards for 2013 in the annual CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and Heritage, the first time in seven years a new pub has been found worthy of the award.

Photo: Mackenzie Wheeler

The pub on the ground floor and the restaurant above are housed within a two storey, fully glazed, concrete framed structure, left raw and exposed, to create the large open spaces of the main customer areas. These spaces are flanked with 28 recycled shipping containers to accommodate the ancillary facilities required.