Bombay Sapphire - good for wildlife

Yesterday I visited the Bombay Sapphire distillery in Laverstoke, Hampshire. The distillery is on the former site of Portal's, known locally for making money, literally. Portal's held the contract to print the paper that made banknotes in the UK and around the world. A 10,000 Drachma note is still on display and presumably ready to be used if Greece should need it. Portal's became part of De La Rue and the original 18th Century mill site closed down and stood empty for many years.

What Bombay Sapphire have done is to restore and renovate many of the old Portal's buildings that date back to the 1700s and add some of their own features including the impressive glasshouse that contains many of the tropical and mediterranean botanicals that go into their gin cocktails.

The tour itself was very informative and accessible but perhaps the most interest aspect was the restoration of the site itself. Not only did it achieve BREEAM Outstanding, the highest award for a sustainable building, they have also done a great deal for wildlife.

Running through the site is the River Test an important chalk stream river (we don't have many of them) and when Bombay arrived the river was clogged, silted and verging on polluted. They cleared it, rebuilt the banks, planted native plant species and it is now running crystal clear and apparently home to various species of birds, fish and water voles, which are all a good sign of a healthy habitat. What is perhaps surprising is the fact that no water is used on-site so it has been restored for its own purposes and to add to the elegance and atmosphere of the distillery.

Bat boxes also adorn many buildings and as we stood outside the glass house the screech of swifts could be heard overhead.

It is great to see that modern business (and Bombay Sapphire has only been around since the late 1950s) can integrate their operations into the community and bring alive not just a collection of old buildings but also the local wildlife.