The Tempus hotel

Nestled within the Northumberland countryside sits The Tempus, a stunning 41 bedroom hotel (listed in The Top 100 Best Places to Stay in the UK by The Times). The hotel is located on the same grounds Charlton Hall and Doxford Barns, all of which offer breathtaking views. 

How it began

Richard from The Tempus got in contact with a clear brief, ‘a wooden play area that needs to be in keeping with its surroundings, and must be as natural as possible’.  We love to receive a brief like this, it’s one of the main reasons we work with timber (read more about our timber).  After a couple of phone calls to really understand their objectives, their wants and needs, and what's important to them, we created a brief for the design team. 

The brief

It needed to cater for children of different ages, to be something different, to challenge children and be a place where children can climb, swing, slide and have lots of fun together whilst staying at the hotel. 

As part of our playground design process, we always create a 3d lifestyle render - this really brings our conversations to life.  For The Tempus, we designed a look out deck with a slide, and a Jungle Clubhouse either side with accessories including monkey bars, rock wall, cargo net and a fireman's pole.  Next to this is a double swing bay with a flat swing, infant swing and 1.2m nest swing - there's plenty to keep children of all ages (and maybe the adults too) occupied.

Render to reality

The big day arrived, well 4 days.  With drawings and renders in hand, and a van full of timber, components and accessories, our installation team soon got to work.

We build a lot of the components in our workshop, which means less time on site and less disruption. It’s always an exciting time watching the new play area being built, and certainly creates a buzz with people around.

Ready to start designing your new play area?

Let's talk