Szerelmey showcased at the Piccadilly Lights

It was a night to remember, seeing the Szerelmey name in bright lights on the digital advertising boards at Piccadilly Circus. Certainly a once in lifetime experience, and one that marked the long awaited official launch of Lucent. Our first involvement with the project was around six years ago when we had a series of meetings with the architects, at that time primarily around the anticipated faience roof. The designs moved on and we ended up looking at the retained facades on Glasshouse and Sherwood Street and a recreation of a historic faience façade on Shaftesbury Avenue. This was a complicated project and involved the careful dismantle of bath stone and Portland stone facades, which were taken down to Wolff Stone in Somerset where they were stored, repaired, restored and reworked. Many of the stones had their overall thickness reduced to allow for modern cavity construction during the reassembly. The stones were brough back to site after around a year and reinstalled with some façade stretching at upper levels. In all we were able to salvage approximately 80% of the bath stone and over 90% of the Portland stone which was quite an achievement. On the other side of the development, the team installed a new faience façade from first floor up, to mimic a badly damaged former historic one. The faience was supplied by Darwen Terracotta. To see a project from the drawing board to completion is such a fantastic thing and something we never tire of. To see our name, along with the rest of the team, on the digital boards, is something we will never forget!

Click to read more about the project