“In Southwold, legend has it, that all basins have three taps…cold, hot and Adnams.” The landmark Swan Hotel re-opened in October 2017 after a £6m radical refurbishment. It has occupied the current site in the renowned Suffolk coastal town since the C17th. Ale has also been brewed on site for over 650 years and is now the heart of Adnams coastal campus brewery and distillery. The brief was to reinvent the listed building as a destination 35 room coastal hotel with a vibrant restaurant and pub/bar. Our approach was to tell stories through the architecture and design. The old building was lovingly restored, while the former stables were transformed into family friendly rooms around a garden. A new-build rustic intervention extended the bar and modern steel and glass insertions to the coach lodge created a much needed visitor centre. The design aesthetic celebrates its coastal Suffolk location and exhibits a playful vibrancy found in the copper fittings reflecting the distillery, the famous local figure Southwold Jack on bespoke tiles and flashes of vibrant Adnams’ colours, such as lipstick pink paint on the bespoke four poster-beds. Local craftsmen were employed to mend the old paneling, carefully peel back layers of paint and to construct new joinery. The combination of old and new allows guests to feel at home in C21st. “Myths which are believed in tend to become true…” Local resident George Orwell 1932