Bam to join team at RHS Garden Bridgewater

Bam is set to be chosen to deliver the Hodder + Partners-designed Welcome Building at RHS Garden Bridgewater as work on the society’s first new garden in nearly two decades begins to ramp up.

Bam is understood to have been picked as main contractor for the Welcome Building, with work set to start early next year, while contractor AE Yates is already on site carrying out highways, infrastructure and enabling works. Other contractors working on the site also include PP O’Connor.

The 154-acre project will be the RHS’s fifth UK garden, and secured planning approval in June last year after the Government confirmed it would not call in the plans. It had previously been approved by Salford City Council but had to be run past the Government owing to the site’s green belt nature.

Bam is set to start next year on the Welcome Building, and the garden is set to open in summer 2020. The timber-clad and glazed building features a plant shop, gift shop, and café, as well as a green roof and views of the garden’s new lake.

The garden, being built on the site of the former Worsley New Hall, also features an 11-acre walled garden designed by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. Barton Willmore is planning consultant for the project with Arcadis as project manager and Roc Consulting. The site was formerly owned by Peel Land & Property but was purchased by Salford City Council, and will be leased to the RHS for 999 years.

Heritage buildings within the site are due to be restored and repurposed, including the Hall’s former potting sheds and historic terraces.

The RHS is hoping to attract around 600,000 to 700,000 visitors to the garden by 2029.