The Creamery is a station café and working dairy in Castle Cary, Somerset.
Originally built in 1912, the derelict old ‘milk factory’ has been brought back to life by our client the Emily Estate and owner of The Newt. The luxurious hotel and immersive Somerset experience is located a mere 10-minute drive away from The Creamery.
The brief was to restore the building to its industrial character as much as possible and a new brick extension was constructed which matches the detailing of the original factory. The old and new buildings are linked with a glass entrance pavilion that frames the distinctive chimney, now open on all four sides.
The 60ft tall chimney has been repaired in a triumphant feat of engineering after it was deemed unstable. It was taken down brick by brick with expert craftmanship and rebuilt with a more stable internal structure.
The building is a joyous celebration of its cheese making history and it’s relationship with the railway, which was used to transport the cheese to the London market. Visitors are immersed in the dairy manufacturing process upon first setting foot in The Creamery, and can marvel at the factory below from a frameless, floor-to-ceiling-glass viewing platform.
Visitors can either continue on the ground floor to the shop or head downstairs for the grab-and-go service or restaurant/café. Here diners can appreciate the cheese-making via curved glass windows that look into the double-height factory area.
Contextual nods to the railway run throughout the interior, from the leather railway carriage booths and pops of GWR green, to the practicality of live train times shown on screens.
