The restoration of the red sandstone Guildhall in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, has earned architects from Consarc Design Group the Best Conservation Project Award in the Royal Society of Ulster Architects Awards, presented at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast last month (15 May).

Consarc was tasked with the restoration of the Grade A listed building, built by The Honourable The Irish Society in 1887 on land reclaimed from the River Foyle at a cost of £18,000.

The restoration of the Guildhall began in 2010 and was completed in June last year, in time for the city’s celebrations as the UK’s City of Culture.

The stone specialist on the project was S McConnell & Sons. During its 120-year history, the Guildhall has been severely damaged twice – by fire in 1908 and in bomb attacks in 1972, and Alan McConnell, the Managing Director of the stone company, says there was some substantial cracking and quite a lot of the stone had to be replaced.

There is ornate masonry on the building which was reproduced in McConnells hi-tec workshops using the company’s Omag CNC workcentres and Terzago saws, as well as the hand skills of the masons.

The stone used for the repairs was Corsehill Red supplied by Dunhouse. In Phase II a new room with a buff sandstone interior was added to the front to provide disabled access.

The exterior was cleaned, using the Finalit products from Austria that McConnells are agents for in Northern Ireland. And it was finished off with a biocide to stop it going green.

The Mayor of Derry, Martin Reilly, congratulated the team involved on the Guildhall project for “both enhancing its original features and creating a more welcoming visitor experience for the public”.