The picture on the right is a computer-generated image of what a new Grove Whitbed Portland stone bench will look like when it is unveiled by the Sheriff of the City of London, The Hon Jeffrey Evans, in Cheapside, adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral, on the 24th of this month (October).
An architectural competition to design stone benches for the City of London was started in 2006 by The City of London Corporation, Chichester stonemasonry company CWO, which often works for the Corporation, and Portland stone quarrying and mining company Albion Stone, which often supplies the stone. The idea of the contest is to introduce stone to students of architecture.
The winners this time were Liverpool architecture students Chris Dove and Craig Mitchell. Their design has been made and installed by masons Sam Elgar from Chichester and Ed Shaw from Eastbourne, who have recently completed their
three-year apprenticeship training at CWO. They were assisted on the project by four guest trainee masons.
Report and pictures of the unveiling in the next issue of NSS.