London Wall and Moorgate

The existing facades on both streets were carefully cleaned, surveyed and investigative works carried out to establish the method with which the original stonework had been fixed. 62-64 Moorgate – once the facade had been recorded, it was carefully dismantled with each stone photographed, labelled and palleted in the order in which they needed to be reinstated. The backs of all the stones were cut down to reduce them to 75mm thick ashlar to allow for modern cavity requirements to facilitate insulation and fire barriers. Stones that were too damaged for reuse were replaced with like for like new stone. The facade was reinstated with blockwork backing structure. Two of the floors were stretched by 250mm and the new stone course in Perryfield Whitbed matched to the existing. The reinstated facade is five storeys with a turret at the top.

On 56-60 Moorgate the facade was retained in situ from ground to third floor with the retained facade cleaned and in situ repairs made. The fourth floor of the facade was removed, the stone cut down to 75mm and reinstated stretching the facade by 250mm, and an entire new fifth floor was installed. The new stonework was delivered in Perryfield Whitbed to match existing. The London Wall facade, 41-42, was all new Portland stone using Basebed for the columns, Whitbed for the window surrounds and Roach for the facias. On all the facades the slabs were 250mm concrete and the tops of the windows approximately 500mm below the concrete slabs. This required the design of very large bracketry to support the stone suspended from the slabs.