Restoration Work at the Tower of London Earns Award Nomination
Some buildings require more careful restoration work than others, and the Tower Of London is certainly one of those buildings. Last year the roof was extensively damaged, and the stones were in need of a good clean – but now the Tower is restored to its full glory.
In fact, the restoration work was so skillful that it has been nominated by the RICS for the RICS (London) award in the Building Conservation category.
The Restoration
The restoration work covered a large section of the Tower – the roofs of both the Bell Tower and The Queen’s House needed extensive repairs, and the stone works also needed a series of repairs. The restoration team also carefully cleaned the stone surfaces inside and outside of the Tower. The restoration team for the stonework was Sally Strachey Historic Conservation, and they were very pleased with the final result.
The difficult project required a large selection of different skills and jobs, from skilled masons to conservators. The Tower was re-roofed to prevent further leaks and water ingress, but years of previous leaks had decayed the stones and made them less stable. The restoration team were able to restore the stones by doing structural repairs. Once the stones were repaired, the team began cleaning the stones to return them to their former glory.
The team also completed some repointing work, which made the Tower weather-tight. This will help to prevent further damage in the future.
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One of the main issues that the team faced was that the building is open to the public. This made the job more challenging, as the team had to work around members of the public and a security team. This issue was resolved by coordinating schedules around opening times.
Completing the Project
The restoration was fully completed in just over a year, and the clients were very happy with the final result. The restoration company are actually now working on a smaller tower that is attached to the building, and they can’t wait to see the results.
The team are also very happy with their nomination, saying that the news was “very pleasing”.
