A brick building in the foreground with a modern glass building and a large historic white domed building with towers in the background. Cobblestone street with a couple walking.

The Hartley Hatch,
Pilotage

Forgotten space turned to ice cream hatch

Following a competitive tender by National Museums Liverpool (NML), HSA was appointed to design a cafe kiosk in the Grade II listed Hartley Hut to support NML’s economic sustainability. Originally designed by Dock Engineer Jesse Hartley in 1844, the Hartley hut is one of three octagonal Watchman’s huts built to provide shelter for the men operating the lock gates of the dock. 

Our initial studies demonstrated that this would be difficult to deliver without causing harm to the character of the listed fabric due to the lack of servicing to the building.  In exploring NML’s commercial requirement, we identified an under-utilised corner of the adjacent Victorian Pilotage building (also within NML ownership), which, with its existing services connections and as an undesignated heritage asset, felt more suited to a potential food and beverage outlet.

Sketch of a heritage site with annotations: visitor attraction, interpreting heritage, pause and engage, connection with existing flow routes, potential informal covers in new landscape, service out from Pilotage connection to existing services, and alterations to unlisted fabric, with figures engaging at different points.

Early design sketch exploring the relationship between the Hartley Hut and Pilotage hatch as extension to the public realm

The proposal takes precedence from the Conservation Area setting and stories of the waterfront, including the ‘sugar story’ (its transport, commodity during the Victorian era and the terracotta sugar moulds uncovered on the nearby site), influencing the material palette. This sensitive refurbishment includes a new stained accoya timber frame and opening ‘hatch’, set within the existing door opening. Red brick waste, from the minimal alterations completed internally, has been cast into the new worktop counter (Granby Rock). When the hatch is closed, only the edge of the new countertop is visible, as a nod to the new insertion in the space. The hatch opens vertically, revealing the space whilst also providing shelter for customers on rainy days. Externally, the existing granite setts have been relaid for level access.

Programming and coordination of the Works was successfully delivered around public safety and the installation of specialist fixtures and fittings, and it has become an important pause point for visitors along the waterfront.

Our role in interrogating the client’s brief added value to the project, successfully delivering the client’s requirement for a food and beverage outlet, whilst identifying the value of Hartley Hut for more sensitive uses. Works are currently progressing to fit out the Hut as a micro-museum offer, designing an ephemeral, exhibition frame within the Hut’s structure.

Read more about the history of the dock keepers at the Hartley Huts here on NML’s website.

A brick building with a small door and a sink and old toliet inside, outside cobblestone pavement, a waterfront with ships, and modern glass buildings in the background. Sign reads 'Great Western Railway'.

Before photo of the existing door opening into the Pilotage - the space was accessible only from the outside and hadn’t been in use for a number of years

Black wooden door with a horizontal counter in a red brick wall, above which is an arched brick frame, with two small black wall lights on either side.

“Recycling the demolition waste, as it was such a small amount of alteration required internally, was important for circularity on the project. The narrative of the terracotta sugar moulds found under the Museum of Liverpool during its construction, connected this palette of materials to the stories of the site, and the red tone waste brick from the alteration was used to create the new worktop counter”

Photo of the new hatch when closed

Storefront with a sign that reads 'HARTLEY HATCH' above a window, showing a person inside preparing an order.
Close-up of a brick wall and terrazzo countertop in a modern interior space.
Brick building with a black gate and a sign that reads 'Hartley Hatch'
Exterior view of a brick building with an open window serving as a café counter for Hartley Hatch, featuring a black countertop, digital menu, and a brick sidewalk in front.
People walking on a cobblestone street in front of historic and modern buildings in Liverpool, England, during late afternoon sunlight.

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