Bombay_Sapphire

Bombay Spirits plans to set up a new distillery for its premium drink Bombay Sapphire gin at Lavestoke Mill, Hampshire.

The UK-based company will take over the two hectare brown-field site near the grounds of Laverstoke Park and restore the buildings, which housed bank note paper making facility, to set up a multi-million pound distillery.

Bombay Spirits aims to restore the buildings and grounds, and introduce new structures to complement with the existing ones.

To be designed by London designer Thomas Heatherwick and his team at Heatherwick Studio, the site will be completely transformed from a derelict mill into a distillery and visitor center.

The major feature of the Laverstoke Mill is the glass house for Bombay Sapphire gin’s ten botanicals, which acts as a symbol for brand’s approach towards gin making.

Heatherwick said as the particular flavours of Bombay Sapphire gin are derived from ten botanicals, the centrepiece of the site is a glass house, within which visitors will experience the specific horticultural specimens infused in the spirit.

"The glass house, influenced by Britain’s rich heritage of glass house structures, will be two separate structures providing both a humid environment for spices that originate from the tropics, as well as a dry temperate zone for Mediterranean plants," Heatherwick added.

"We are thrilled to have the chance to take this historic site, and turn it from its current derelict state into a new industrial facility with national significance."

Bombay Sapphire global category director John Burke said with tradition, quality and craftsmanship at the heart of the site’s heritage, the company can finally look forward to opening its doors to consumers worldwide and share with them the care, skill and imagination that is infused in the spirit it produces.

Having got the planning permission to restore Laverstoke Mill in February 2012, the construction process is underway and the distillery expects to open by autumn 2013.

Image: An artists impression of the glass house interior at the Bombay Sapphire gin distillery at Lavestoke Mill, Hampshire. Photo: Bombay Sapphire