Hotel Indigo Gloucester – The Forum
PROJECT
A collection full of of discoveries
At Hotel Indigo Gloucester – The Forum, local storytelling is woven into every layer of the guest experience. Artstory explored Gloucester’s extraordinary mix of history, industry, craft and reinvention to develop an art programme that feels unmistakably connected to the city.
Three narratives became our creative threads.
Layers of Depth delves into Gloucester’s Roman past and the traces of history that continue to surface across the city. Tailoring & Craft celebrates centuries of making, from medieval textiles and pin-making to leatherwork and local manufacturing. The New Docks looks to Gloucester’s maritime and industrial heritage, capturing the energy of a working dock transformed for a new generation.
Rather than simply illustrating these stories, we played with them: abstracting, layering and occasionally adding a little humour. Across 129 guestrooms and the hotel’s public spaces, the narratives emerge through bespoke artwork, murals, sculpture, textiles and crafted details, from Roman mosaics and dock machinery to a very unexpected motorcycle. The result is a collection full of discoveries that rewards a closer look and gives guests a genuine connection to Gloucester and its stories.
A piece of Gloucester engineering heritage, given an Artstory twist. Founded in the city in 1918, the Cotton Motor Company provided an irresistible connection between Gloucester’s manufacturing history and our Tailoring & Craft narrative.
We sourced an original Cotton motorcycle and restored it before introducing hand-crafted textile interventions: brightly coloured thread wraps the wheel spokes and exhaust, while rug-punched textile details add an unexpected softness to the machine. The thread colours also connect visually with the bespoke textile chandeliers elsewhere in the hotel.
Part historic object, part contemporary artwork, the finished motorcycle creates a playful collision of engineering and craft, and a memorable talking point for guests from the moment they arrive.
