Nick Shipton

28 October 2004 by
Nick Shipton

I own a bar and restaurant in Hertford already, called Elbert Wurlings. The place has been open for nine years, and I wanted to decant the business into a new unit while I redeveloped the Wurlings site - but I didn't want to just put the business on hold. I needed to move the business and not lose our 1,000 customers.

So we looked at various properties and, even though loads weren't right, we got down to just a couple. Then, out of the blue, this agent I knew contacted me about a new property on the market - the Mercury Building, right in the middle of town. I had known this property for years and had dreamt about doing something with it, and I knew one day it would come on the market - but I have to pinch myself when I think it's now mine.

The building is one of the most prominent in Hertford, and used to the headquarters of our famous local paper, the Mercury. It's a Victorian building on four levels built specially for the paper's publisher, Steven Austin, who moved there in 1856. The paper lived there ever since, until very recently when it moved to more modern offices.

There aren't many of them left, these period offices. As soon as I walked in my mind was jumping, the imagination got going - a bar can be replicated but this was going to be different.

We had a wonderful moment when we took down a fake ceiling, and there was this amazing high Victorian ceiling staring back, with original beams marking the floor above. Then there were two chimney stacks running through the building, and we pulled back a bit of plasterboard covering one and found this original steel door leading to the building's strongroom. I was thinking, "I can imagine the bar, I can smell it," but then it started to dictate back to me. It started to be a hotel.

Suddenly, the more time we spent looking around, the more I thought, "I think I need to do a hotel. This is going to be brand new." I realised I couldn't keep my original plan and squeeze a square peg into a round hole. You have to go with your gut feeling with properties. It was very exciting. It's big, about 14,000sq ft, and the area needed a hotel. It will be the first one opened around here in something like 200 years.

So we bought at the end of January and started to work on the planning application then. We got an architect on board, and a structural engineer. A lot of people get permission before buying, and of course I did pick up the phone to ask the planning officer what he thought. But if you know the area well, you know what questions will be asked and you can probably answer them yourself: how is waste going to be looked after? Where will deliveries be made? Do the maths yourself.

Last month we got planning permission and then this month the first part of the licence. We're three-quarters there. There are issues, because it's Grade II-listed, like we can't alter the front - but you wouldn't want to anyway. The guidelines are sensible, and if you want to do something inappropriate they throw up obstacles. I think Pizza Hut would have problems with a Grade II building, but that's not us.

There are interesting details, though. Because it was a printers as well, there are big loading bays at the front. We can use these. It's all there, it just needs to be rediscovered. Also, it's a very busy road, so there's the issue of parking; but we met with the head of planning to answer as many questions as possible. We're going to have valet parking, using three local car parks.

I think you ask yourself whether the building's going to be worth it, and this building definitely is.

Also make sure you visit your prospective neighbours. We had a beauty salon next door and a hairdresser - so we can come up with promotional ideas for guests, which means we can work with local businesses. Know the area really well. Unless you have a big marketing team that just goes in asking, "How can we conquer a place?" you have to know the market: what it's like in the day, what it's like during the evening.

We aim to be somewhere between the mid and top end of the market: a style-led boutique hotel with about 23 rooms, a lobby bar and restaurant with about 60 covers, plus a lower-ground floor for a members' and residents' bar, open until 2am.

When you have a rich past like this building has, that's the motivation for the hotel. A guy came in the other day who said he used to work there printing war propaganda leaflets, the first leaflets ever to be called flyers, because they were dropped out of aeroplanes over Germany. It's a nice piece of history, and we can use that for marketing the hotel. It's a starting point when you have all that to draw from.

Now I'd love to open more hotels. I'm thinking all the time about things to do here - food festivals, who knows? - and giving myself a list of questions: can I do this, can I do that? In fact, I'm thinking about the next 10 years.

But you have to have faith. I feel like we're bringing the building back. People in the town have never seen the building lit at night, and it means the whole strip will take on a new angle. People are aching to have a look around. Isn't that wonderful? We're going to do a good job.

Elbert Wurlings
Pegs Lane
Hertford
SG13 8EG.

Tel: 01992 509153.
The Mercury Building, 1 Fore Street, Hertford

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