Inside Berdoulat owner Patrick Williams' home

It could be viewed as something of a miracle or, perhaps, just blind good luck that a city council supports an independent business over a global chain in 21st-century Britain.

Yet, six years ago, Patrick and Neri Williams were handed the keys – above a multitude of rapacious developers – to breathe new life into a building in Bath that has functioned as a shop since 1739, and was also the birthplace of Bath Oliver biscuits.

As a member of SPAB (the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), The Georgian Group and The Victorian Society, Patrick takes history seriously.

In his work as an interior designer, specialising in period buildings, this obsession ensures his personal maxim, ‘the building is the client’, can flourish, keeping his vision firmly rooted in the past.

‘Forty percent of my childhood was spent mixing lime render and laying floors,’ he explains. During the summer holidays, his parents employed their young family in the restoration of their 18th-century French farmhouse, named Berdoulat.

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Today, the home Patrick shares with his Turkish/Bulgarian wife, Neri, two young daughters, Wren and Bonnie, and their Bedlington whippets, Elizabeth and Moon, echoes this legacy.

Composed of three interconnected buildings, each from a different era – Georgian, Regency and Victorian – the full restoration project took an arduous four years.

‘As a designer, I was so excited,’ says Patrick. ‘It’s an eccentric building, combining domestic, commercial and retail spaces with architectural elements from different periods.’

Patrick explains how there was an inch of nicotine on the ceiling (‘it was literally dripping’), and how the heating consisted of a coal-fired Rayburn.

The basement, extraordinarily, hadn’t been used since Victorian times. ‘We restored the basement, which is now the kitchen, with the lightest of touches so it still feels ancient, yet behind the stone there is steel lurking, holding up the building,’ he says.

The result is impressive. The shop – a homewares emporium named Berdoulat, after Patrick’s childhood home – sells furniture and home accessories (some designed by Patrick), as well as wine, cookery books and herbs and spices.

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Generous 19th-century mahogany counter tops that were installed in the shop in 1890 are velvet-soft after years of use and, in the display cabinets, rows of ceramic jars are filled with exotic spices, liquorice sticks, French caramels and curious treats.

‘We love living beside and above the shop. It was always a bit of a childhood dream of mine to do this,’ says Patrick. ‘When I was five years old, I used to make clay pots from the very clay-rich soil surrounding Berdoulat. I’d fire them in the barbecue coals and sell them to unsuspecting house guests. I set up my ‘pottery shop’ beneath a tree in the garden. It was all very idyllic, and much more straightforward compared to the shop we now run,’ he smiles.

Patrick designed much of the furniture for their home, tackling the kitchen like a sitting room with ‘proper pieces of furniture’. ‘I prefer the simplicity of freestanding pieces,’ he says.

The emphasis on craftsmanship is evident throughout the house – and his own designs take inspiration from the 18th and 19th centuries.

‘Traditional craftsmanship is such because it stands the test of time. I often think of traditional joinery, or furniture design, as being similar to folk songs. A form exists, which is then interpreted and executed slightly differently by later generations of practitioners. Over time there are cyclical references, and borrowed motifs, combined with new ideas and interventions,’ says Patrick.

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Throughout the home, collections are displayed en masse, creating striking and intriguing displays. In the galleried hallway (a new structure devised by Patrick to link the three buildings together) fragments of architectural mouldings found at flea markets are hung on the wall.

In the sitting room, mouldings and casts hang above the fireplace – bought from eBay and stripped of layers of paint by Patrick during lockdown. Even their daughters’ pens and pencils are artfully displayed in antique stone jars.

Such is the commitment to the history of the building that the only signs of the 21st century are the odd contemporary accessory, such as a couple of artist-designed meat plates that sit among a collection of antique Burleigh platters in the dresser and a handmade cushion on an antique sofa.

Thoughtfully chosen to fit the pared-back scheme, antiques have been bought from eBay, junk shops and online from dealers. ‘I love things that are beautifully designed and made. Things that celebrate the material they are made from and the skill and craft of their maker,’ Patrick explains.

‘I also love patina and the way in which it connects us to previous generations. For me, there is comfort in the concept of custodianship as opposed to ownership.’