The Chapter House at Westminster Abbey, opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, is undergoing its first major restoration since George Gilbert Scott’s project in 1870. Nimbus Conservation are repairing the stonework.

The octagonal Chapter House in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey is one of London’s oldest buildings and can legitimately claim to be the birthplace of the Mother of Parliaments. It was in the Chapter House that Henry III presided over his Great Council that eventually evolved into the Parliament we know today.

That was 750 years ago. Today, the Chapter House is surrounded in scaffolding, as it has been all year and will remain until the restoration of the stonework of the building being carried out by Nimbus Conservation is finished in May next year.

Westminster Abbey it what is known as a ‘Royal Peculiar’, but while the church itself comes under the auspices of the church authorities, the Chapter House is the responsibility of English Heritage. It is they, with their project managers, Thinc Projects, and architects Stow & Beale Conservation Architects, who are overseeing the current project.

Tim Reeves, the Properties Director of English Heritage, describes the Chapter House as a ‘jewel of English history’ and a building of international importance.

Not since George Gilbert Scott practically rebuilt the outer skin of the walls of what is one of Britain’s most important Gothic buildings in the 19th century has it received such significant attention. And it is testament to Scott’s work and the Chilmark stone used for it that the current project does not involve even more work.

In fact, although this is a £4million project for Nimbus that will have used 30-40tonnes of replacement stone by the time it is finished, that is less than had been anticipated by English Heritage as the result of their initial survey, says Manjit Phull, the Nimbus Director in charge of the project. 

“The Victorians used massive stones – structural stones – so structurally it’s sound. There’s not much in the way of cracking or moving,” he told NSS. 

Nimbus site manager Angus Lawrence adds that although the Victorian stonework has weathered back by about 10mm in places, leaving exposed areas of more resilient quartz, there is no danger of a major failure, although a few pieces of carving have become detached and fallen to the ground over the years.

Replacement masonry made by Nimbus’s masons reproduces the Victorian stonework and follows the original (rather than the weathered) line of the building. And all the carvings are crafted as clay maquettes initially for approval by English Heritage before the stone is worked.

If all the stone replacement that had originally been thought necessary had been carried out, one quarry would not have been able to supply it in the timescale. With the reduced scope it has been possible for Chicksgrove Quarry to meet the demand, and all from Bed B. It is for the repair of one complete gargoyle, which will emulate an existing was the preferred source because it was felt the stone was particularly consistant. 

The only other stone being used is Portland limestone from the Perryfield Quarry. It is for a repair to one complete gargoyle, which will emulate an existing Portland stone gargoyle carved during previous restoration work. The gargoyles are no longer water spouts. The parapet lead-lined gutters, where the leadwork is being replaced, drain down lead pipes with cast iron hopper heads that are also being replaced.

The Chapter House sits in the Canons’ gardens and one of the requirements of the contractors was that their work should not disrupt the normal activities of the site, which includes Westminster School that abuts the Chapter House. That was particularly sensitive during examinations in the summer. Neither was the noise of the work to disturb services in the church.

The sensitivity of the building and the arrangement of the site with the restrictions associated with it provided some challenges for the scaffolders, including areas where the scaffolding had to be cantilevered out over roofs below. 

It was also required not only to accommodate the people working there, but also a variety of visitors, because it was an English Heritage requirement that the contractors should be able to show visitors around. It took five months to finish erecting the scaffolding.

Even deliveries have not been straight forward, with lorries having to be turned away at the last minute because Old Palace Yard, between the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, had been closed due to visiting dignitaries. The contractors were never given any warning for security reasons.

As if that were not pressure enough, the finish date has been brought forward by three weeks.

Nimbus set up a six-person team at their workshops in Frome, Somerset, to produce some of the masonry and carvings needed for the project. Work is also being carried out on site in banker shops set up there. 

There are up to 20 people at a time on site working the stone, fixing it and carrying out plastic repairs. They are also cleaning the stonework to a conservation level that preserves the patina of age and some of the history of the building, such as shrapnel damage from World War Two. 

Being not too far east of Battersea power station, the Chapter House has accumulated a carbon coating from the coal that was burnt there for decades. That has added to the dirt deposited by 100 years of background pollution that preceded the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and ’68. The soiling is being removed using a nebulous spray and, where necessary, the Doff superheated water system. In areas of heavy sulphation amonium carbonate poultices are being used.

Although the scope of the project is less than had originally been anticipated, there is still a lot of new stone going on to the building as tracery, trefoils, parapets, and all kinds of carved and ashlar indents. One whole gargoyle is being replaced and a lot of repairs are being made to the others. There are six windows each 10m high and a seventh slightly truncated because of a flat roof that have all needed some large pieces of masonry to repair the hood moulds and tracery. 

But although the replacement stone does aim to reproduce faithfully the detail of the original work there is one area where no attempt is being made to reproduce the originals. That is new carved heads.

The Victorian heads were likenesses of people of the day and English Heritage decided to maintain that tradition. Nimbus’s masons have carved the heads of some of those involved in the project, such as Clive Dawson, the structural engineer, and Trevor Groom, the quantity surveyor. There has been plenty of scope because there are 32 new heads all together. 

Manjit Phull, who was offered and accepted the chance to become a Director of Nimbus while repairing the marble breast on one of the Britannias on the Albert Memorial nearly a decade ago, says that although the Chapter House is a major project, it has not produced any surprises so far. 

“There hasn’t been anything contentious or worrying. There are very good lines of communication, good feed back from English Heritage and the architect is on site every week.

“This was a hard fought project that didn’t just come down to price. English Heritage wanted to be confident the contractors they appointed could manage the site and all the people involved, as well as the day-to-day conservation and restoration work. I think the fact that we train our own apprentices and that everyone in the company does five days CPD a year helped.”

Barry Stow of Stow & Beale Conservation Architects, says: “The early Chapter House was reportedly ‘finer than Salisbury’. In 1859 George Gilbert Scott reconstructed the roof and upper parts, which had been, in his words, ‘dreadfully mutilated’. He described the Chapter House as ‘a structure perfect in itself, of a purely English type as to its plan and outline, and as carrying out the principle of window tracery in a fuller and grander degree than any part of the church’.

“We are delighted to have been selected to conserve Scott’s work, which, in contrast to so much Victorian restoration, has benefitted the public face of the Abbey complex as well as preserving the fine 13th century interior.”