Visitors to Ickworth House in Suffolk are benefiting from improved facilities following the completion of a project to build new toilets and a shop.

Managed by the National Trust, Ickworth House needed the new amenities for an increasing number of visitors to use, which was a challenge due to the constraints of the historic site and the necessity to be located close to the car park within a protected landscape.

Pick Everard acted as lead consultants on the project, delivering services including project management, design and quantity surveying. The firm also provided mechanical and electrical services.

Jeremy Ault, senior building surveyor at Pick Everard’s Bury St Edmund’s office, said: “Ickworth House is a really beautiful spot, which provided us with a series of challenges when planning and designing the new facilities.

“For example, the area in which it now sits is surrounded by a number of historic protected trees, so we had to work very closely with English Heritage throughout the project to ensure that the new building sat comfortably in its historic setting.”

The new timber-framed building includes a number of sustainable features, such as under-floor heating powered by an air source heat pump as well as energy-saving devices including low flush toilets and sensor taps.

Partner at Pick Everard Alastair Hamilton said: “We were delighted to be appointed to deliver this project for the National Trust at what is a wonderful historic house in Bury St Edmunds.”