EG CARTER & CO’S HOUSE ON THE HILL WINS RIBA HOUSE OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021

Cheltenham man’s travel idea smashes Crowdcube target

An app offering engaging audio city guides for some of Europe’s most beautiful and historic cities written by cultural experts and local writers, has smashed its crowdfunding target, raising more than £175,000.

the much-coveted RIBA House of the Year award.

“It was a fantastic project to be involved with and great to see it get the recognition that it deserves.

Urbs Travel was set up by Cheltenham man William von Behr to take advantage of the tours and travel activities market, which is worth $150 billion. There are also more people consuming audio content –more than 16 million podcast listeners in the UK alone.

House on the Hill – formally known as Windward House – in the Forest of Dean was designed by Alison Brooks Architects and built by EG Carter.

The restoration took more than 10 years, and the RIBA jury commended the house for the “amalgam of architecture, landscape, inhabitation and art” that aptly manages to create a light and calm atmosphere.

Mark Harries, EG Carter associate director, said: “It is a huge honour for EG Carter to be associated with a project that has won

“The house really is one of a kind and it took some of our highly skilled tradespeople to achieve the very high standard of craftmanship capable of winning an award of this stature.”

Architect Alison Brookes, added: “I see private house commissions as a rare opportunity to test new ideas in a concentrated form – they are the built equivalent of writing an essay. So, this accolade is a testament to my client’s belief in the value of architecture and their willingness to embrace the new.”

Luxury spa hotel near Cirencester sold to British furniture brand

Barnsley House hotel, once the home of the renowned garden designer Rosemary Verey, has a new owner after upmarket British furniture brand Timothy Oulton acquired the hotel from previous owner the Calcot Collection, which bought it out of administration in 2009.

The new owners, who have also purchased the nearby Village Pub, are continuing to operate the venue as a luxury hotel, spa and pub with rooms.

Having divested itself of Barnsley House The

Collection still owns three hotels: Calcot Hotel near Tetbury, The Painswick, at Painswick near Stroud and the Lord Crewe in Northumberland.

Tim Oulton said: "Barnsley House and the Village Pub are exactly the kind of property we have been wanting to bring into our group, with our focus on creating authentic, award-winning experiences in home, retail and hospitality.”

Urbs is a mobile app that offers unique audio content, customisable routes, ticket booking integration so people can skip queues, accommodation booking and a social function where users can share their routes.

Launched last September, despite the pandemic Urbs’ user base had grown by 50 per cent to 252 monthly active users by November.

William believes that the city guide industry is outdated. Modern travellers can either hire a tour guide (inflexible and expensive) or carry around a bulky written guide (not immersive). Digital solutions are fragmented: quality navigation lacks original content, whilst quality audio lacks maps, he said.

William and his co-director Luke Smyth-Osbourne, the company’s chief technical officer, have worked with more than 20 leading experts to produce content for seven cities across Europe so far, with two more in the works.

Will was pursuing a Masters at Oxford before he decided to found Urbs. Prior to that he spent two years advising on the mergers and acquisitions of consumer goods companies.