GILDHOUSE.

Bespoke web design for the British high street

The best-dressed shopfront on the internet.

Gildhouse builds rare, beautiful websites for England’s independent businesses — pubs, boutiques, solicitors and trades. Crafted like a hand-painted sign. Engineered like nothing else on your street.

Arrange a callSee the work

By appointment to the high street

Serving: York · Bath · Ludlow · Whitstable · Harrogate · Totnes · Shrewsbury · Rye · Frome · Beverley · Marlborough · Hebden Bridge · Stamford · Lewes · Bakewell · Holt

No. 2The Window, The Parade

Your sign says everything

You’d never trade from a shop with a peeling fascia and a hand-taped notice in the window. Yet that, give or take, is what most local websites are: built in a weekend in 2017, squinting on mobile, apologising for itself.

Here is the uncomfortable bit. Your customers now walk past your digital window far more often than your real one — every search, every “pub near me”, every recommendation forwarded in a family group chat. The business with the better shopfront online wins the booking before anyone has put their coat on.

A proper website isn’t a luxury. It’s the quietest unfair advantage on your street.

We build it the way the best things in this country have always been built: by hand, to last, with no fuss and no jargon. You will not hear the word “synergy” from us. You will hear the till.

No. 3The Trades, The Parade

No. 4The Method, The Parade

  1. Week one

    The Survey

    We come to you — or ring, if you’d rather. We learn how your business actually earns its keep: the questions customers always ask, the jobs you want more of, the ones you don’t. No forms. One good conversation and a pot of tea.

  2. Week two

    The Draught

    You see the design before a line of code exists — words, pictures, the lot, in plain English. You mark it up like a proof from the printer’s. We revise until you’d hang it in the window yourself.

  3. Weeks three & four

    The Gilding

    The build. Hand-set type, photography handled, every page tuned to load in a blink on a weak phone signal in a beer garden. Tested on real devices, not just expensive ones.

  4. Launch day

    The Unveiling

    We put it live, point Google at it, and hand you the keys with a one-page guide a busy person can actually use. Then we stay on the end of the phone. Forever, in practice.

No. 5The Plaque, The Parade

It paid for itself in a month and looks better than shops ten times our size.
S. Marsh · Marsh & Reed, Ludlow
The right jobs ring now — bigger work, better customers, booked three months out.
D. Pickering · Pickering & Sons, Beverley
Clients tell us we look reassuringly established. In our line, that’s worth everything.
A. Whitlock · Whitlock & Hale Solicitors, Harrogate

Two dozen independents across England — pubs, shops, practices and trades. Not one has asked to leave.

No. 6The Guarantee, The Parade

We take the risk, so you don’t have to.

Spending good money on a website you’ve not yet seen is a leap of faith. So we’ve removed the leap: you’ll see exactly how it’ll look, and sign it off, before the building begins. Three plain promises — no asterisks.

I

See the design before you commit

Before we build a thing, you’ll see a full design concept — exactly how your website will look, words and pictures and all, in plain English. You mark it up like a proof from the printer’s, and we refine it until you’d happily hang it in your window. You only commit to the build once you’re happy with what you’re looking at.

II

Own it outright, forever

Every pixel is yours to keep, built on standards made to last. No rental, no lock-in, no holding your website hostage. You can take it and leave whenever you like — in practice, in fifteen years, nobody ever has.

III

A fixed price, no surprises

The price is agreed before we start, and it doesn’t budge — no surprise retainers, no meter running, no “while we’re in there”. You pay it simply, in two stages: a deposit to begin the build once you’ve approved the design, and the balance when your site goes live.

That’s not a sales pitch. It’s just how a decent firm should behave.

Arrange a call →

No. 7The Tariff, The Parade

  • The Plaque

    £2,400

    A single, immaculate page. Your story, your photographs, your phone number — done properly. Live in a fortnight.

  • The Shopfront

    £4,800

    The full premises. Up to eight pages, bookings or enquiries built in, photography directed, Google sorted. Our standard pour.

  • The Flagship

    from £9,500

    For the ambitious: online ordering, gift vouchers, membership, the works. The site your competitors send their nephews to study.

All prices plus VAT · No retainers you don’t understand · Hosting & care from £39 a month, cancel whenever

The questions everyone asks

How much does it cost?
Fixed prices, written plainly on the board: a one-page site from £2,400, a full website from £4,800, and advanced builds from £9,500, all plus VAT. No “POA”, no surprise retainers.
Do I have to pay it all up front?
No. You pay in two simple stages: a deposit to begin the build — once you’ve seen and approved the design — and the balance when your website goes live.
What if I don’t like it?
Before any building begins, you’ll see a full design concept — exactly how your site will look — and we refine it until it’s right. You only go ahead once you’re happy with it. If the design genuinely isn’t for you, you’re under no obligation to proceed.
Do I actually own my website?
Yes — outright, domain and all. No rental, no lock-in, no holding it hostage. It’s an asset you own, not a subscription you’re trapped in.
See all questions→

No. 8Last Orders, The Parade

Put the kettle on. The first conversation costs nothing and changes everything.

Twenty minutes on the phone. We’ll tell you, candidly, what your current site is costing you and what we’d do about it. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so and point you somewhere good.

Arrange a call

hello@gildhouse.uk · 01905 490 138