a Place to View

Probably one of the most strikingly original residences to be developed so far in Gibraltar, Flat 2 Orchid House has been opened as a show apartment at the Cliftons, the name of the luxury private development at the now unused part of the Royal Naval Hospital.

Launched at a party hosted by the developer Taylor Woodrow,the variety of distinctive features pro vided a basis for considerable fa vourable comment amongst the guests, largely made up of profes sionals associated with the redevel opment and sale of the apartments — estate agents,lawyers, bankers, building society managers and con struction professionals.

The whole development has at tracted a level of international in terest that is well above average,al though around a third ofsales have been to local people.

Particularly eye-catching were the extra-high ceilings, which, at four metres, are about twice as el evated as those to be found in most modem apartments. This existing height was cleverly taken advan tage of by the architects, who con structed a mezzanine floor in part of one of the rooms in order to pro vide an additional open-plan bed room.

The original antique narrow red floorboards didn't escape anyone's attention either: they are believed to be sequoia,or Califomian Giant Redwood, a type of timber that would never be found in purely modern buildings. The tall slender sash windows were also a talking point as a reminder of more grace ful days: although the originals were mainly unsound, Taylor Woodrow,committed as always to preserving heritage, went to con siderable additional expense to have the rotten timbers,sash cords and weights replaced in exactly the same style as the originals. They look brand new - but brand new as they looked in 1910, or perhaps a few years earlier

Similarly with the long wide col onnaded terrace. During its hospi tal days the outside edge of the ter race had been filled in with brick work, which Taylor Woodrow thoughtshould be opened up again to enhance the property.Their tech nicians calculated where they thought the original columns should be,but on breaking away in those places they had an unhappy surprise: the columns were exactly where they were expected to be,but they were made of ugly and dilapi dated concrete. However, disap pointment turned to delight when further cutting revealed an architec tural treasure: the brutal concreting was hiding the original stanchions made of decoratively shaped cast iron, which were soon cleaned up to restore them to their former glory.

Described in architectural terms as Edwardian Castellated,the RNH was built between 1901 and 1910, and quickly became dubbed locally as The Wedgwood Castle,due to its unusual pastel blue painted walls. Originally built as an army hospi tal, it was only taken over by the Royal Navy in 1962. The navy still uses two of the three wings as a hos pital, but the third wing, now un der development and re-named Orchid House, discharged its last patient around twenty years ago.

The new name Orchid House is itself a reminder of the developer's concern for the environment; the company's Queensway Quay ma rina was highly praised for its ap proach to protecting the underwa ter plant and animal life, and as soon as it became known that they were to begin work on refurbish ing part of the RNH they were alerted by GONHS to the fact that two rare Bee Orchids were known to be rooted somewhere amongst the weeds.

'We readily agreed to delay the start of the work until the plants had a chance to give away their hid ing place when they flowered,'said Kim, who is both Project Manager and a Director of TW in Gibraltar.

'As soon as they were spotted continued overleaf