The latest phases of refurbishment at Harrods, one of the world’s best-known stores, saw stoneCIRCLE fabricating and fixing marble flooring, wall panels and display furniture.

Art Deco provided the inspiration for the latest part of the refurbishment of Harrods that has included the consolidation of its menswear department on to the whole of the second floor, rather than being spread across three smaller areas on different floors as it had been previously.

Part of a wider refurbishment project, the Menswear move was overseen by Simon Longland, the Head of Menswear for the store, and David Collins Studio, which designed the floor with one over-arching concept to create consistency throughout its various rooms.

The Art Deco theme was felt to have a traditional stylishly masculine feel of men’s tailoring, with Carrara and Bardiglio marbles used to create the chequerboard floor, bordered by Nero Marquina throughout the department for the walkway floors.

Elsewhere, the same marbles were combined in various geometric patterns with Katuba Sodalite adding the occasional touch of blue.

All the marble was supplied and installed by stoneCIRCLE from its workshops in Basingstoke, Hampshire. It has been contributing to the refurbishment at Harrods for the past five years, starting with the fine watch department. The Harrods team had previously gone to Italy for its marble processing and installation but liked the speed and ease of working with stoneCIRCLE, which smoothed the way for the company to secure subsequent work at the store.

The first part of the Menswear move was Footwear, where Bardiglio is used to create columns for the shoes to rest on, sometimes combined with bands of Carrara with Nero Marquina detailing.

The next two stages, each covering some 250m2, were both part of the Men’s Contemporary area. Concentric and exocentric squares formed of Bardiglio, Carrara and Nero Marquina were used in some areas, with Katuba Sodalite substituted for the Bardiglio in others.

Walls are panelled with Nero Marquina, with Bardiglio in a mixture of polished, scratched and sandblasted finishes.

Then came Men’s Outdoor. Here the panels on the floor saw squares of Nero Marquina and Bardiglio inserted into Carrara marble. Nero Marquina was again used for the wall panels.

Currently, stoneCIRCLE is working on the final Menswear area of Accessories.

Marble for the new Hermes boutique was also supplied and installed by stoneCIRCLE. The floor has Namibian White in the centre with parallel strips of Thassos running width-wise from it. There is Brown Stone marble at the sides of the corridors. Brown Stone is also used on the walls as skirting and edging for some of the display panels. Selected areas of the walls and some plinths are clad in Tarahumara marble panels. 

All the stones were sourced in Italy during visits by the client team accompanied by Steve Vanhinsbergh, one of stoneCIRCLE’s Directors. Much of it was due to be delivered just as Italy went into its first Covid lockdown, shortly followed by the UK.

StoneCIRCLE’s Italian agent defied the lockdown long enough to get the stone shipped. When it arrived, the UK was in lockdown and Harrods was shut, but stoneCIRCLE continued working, even though some of the staff were furloughed.

Steve Vanhinsbergh continued to go into his office each day to oversee the work and says it was one of the few times in his life when his workload actually went to plan because he did not receive any calls from sites or customers with matters that required his immediate attention. “It was lovely,” he says.

The stone was cut on stoneCIRCLE’s GMM Brios (soon to be joined by a GMM Litox to take advantage of the ‘super allowance’ on capital expenditure announced in the Spring Statement) and its Techni five-axes waterjet, helped by an older waterjet, to produce the floors as panels of 1m square, finished on the Denver face polisher with a bit of assistance from  the company’s manual Jenny Lind.

Slabsmith photo station also played a major part in the process. It creates dimensionally and tonally precise digital versions of slabs that were used to create  pinpoint matching of the veining in production for perfect results. “David Collins Studio designed the floors and we made them work,” says Steve.

With the stone manufactured during lockdown it was ready to go straight to Harrods when contractors TC&D and Jaysam re-opened the site.

Keeping up with the programme at Harrods has always required careful planning because of the lack of space for storing materials on site. It requires just in time delivery, all the materials being unloaded at a building opposite Harrods and pushed up a ramp under the road into the store – and pushing 800kg of marble uphill on an A-frame was just one of the challenges of this project.

Another part of the Harrods refurbishment was the extension to Harrods’ Shoe Heaven.

It continues the themes of the shoe department that opened in 2014, giving 4,000m2 dedicated to shoes and continuing stoneCIRCLE’s work on the refurbishment of this prestigious retail store.

Commissioned by contractor Jaysam for this phase of the project, all fabrication was once again carried out by stoneCIRCLE in its Basingstoke workshop.

Crema Martel was used on the floors with Grigio Stardust inlaid in interlocking geometric patterns with Nero Marquina borders. The floor joints are resin filled and the whole floor was ground to a honed finish after installation.

The walls are clad with vein-cut Silver Travertine tiles and fitted with Nero Marquina plinths to match the existing walls. New columns are also clad with Silver Travertine and finished with Nero Marquina detail-ing to match the columns in the existing department.

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David Coster, Director of Advanced Stone & Masonry Supplies, which sells Stain Proof and Tenax products, talks to Daniel Waters, the Managing Director of The Waters Group, the stone equipment, tools and consumables supplier to stone companies in the UK and Ireland.

David: As a supplier of tools and equipment it probably doesn’t matter to you which materials your customers are using, but do you have a preference for natural stone, quartz, sintered stone/ceramics?

Daniel: Personally, I have three kids, so I would go for quartz because it’s scratch resistant and doesn’t stain. As far as selling tools is concerned, probably quartz as well because it’s consistent. You can specify which tools will be best for a range of products. When the kids have eventually left home I will be having natural stone in my kitchen.

David: As a tool supplier, do you think finishes are better straight off a CNC or do they need hand finishing?

Daniel: If it were my kitchen top – and I’ve said I would choose quartz – I would want it straight off the CNC because it’s clinical. It has clean lines. But if it was natural stone I would go for a hand finish because you’re not so bothered about a clean line.

David: When it comes to templating, do you think it’s best to make a physical template or use digital templating?

Daniel: Having sold both digital templaters and materials for physical templating in the years I have been at Waters Group I would say digital templating is best these days when most people are using CNCs. I have trained people on digital templating and it’s so accurate for going straight on to the CNCs we have in the industry now.

David: It’s more environmentally friendly.

Daniel: Yes. And it’s more cost effective.

A question I always ask the fabricators is whether they love or hate their customers. Your customers are those fabricators. So do you love your customers or hate them?

Love some. Hate some. They can brighten up your day or make your day a little bit duller.

Is there anything you are currently investing in to improve your business?

We have invested in the Zoller digital tool measuring machine to use alongside our ADI tooling offer. It enables us to measure the diamond tools on their cones and send the measurements to customers with the tools, whether they are new or after redressing, so they can put the tools straight on to their machines. And we are offering that service free of charge to our customers, the fabricators. The benefit of having tools measured is that you don’t have do any setting up when they arrive at your factory. You can run them straight away from the measurements we provide. Because they are accurate you can run them at higher speeds and they have longer life. We also sell the Zoller machine for customers’ factories with ADI’s unique software for the stone industry, available only through Waters Group in the UK.

The government has committed the country to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. It says businesses are going to have to be greener if that target is to be achieved. Do you have a plan in place to cut your carbon emissions and help your customers cut their carbon emissions?

Yes. It’s always on our minds.

And ethical sourcing; making sure there is no modern slavery or other human rights breaches in your supply chain?

The same. We keep on top of it and make sure we are buying products from ethical sources.

As an importer of equipment that you sell on, were you hit by first Brexit and then the Covid pandemic?

The cost increases of products and transport have obviously impacted us. Shortages of raw materials have been a bit of a headache. But because we had already prepared for Brexit, we were also pretty well prepared for Covid. We had increased stock vastly – actually by three times. So we were prepared for Brexit and that had a knock on effect with Covid. We were prepared for Covid because we were ready for Brexit, if that makes sense.

Are you finding it hard to recruit skilled people?

Finding new staff is incredibly difficult; finding good staff, that is even more difficult at the moment.

Do you have any plans in place for more development of your business?

We have introduced repair kits for worktops. Damaged quartz and ceramic worktops can be an expensive problem for fabricators, so we have introduced these kits to overcome that problem. One of them is Quartz Renew from America. And it was obviously needed because it is selling really, really well. It saves our customers a lot of money repairing slabs that have dull patches or fine scratches. They can renew the surfaces on-site and in the factory. The next big product is called Surface Renew, which is for repairing ceramic and porcelain materials, doing exactly the same as Quartz Renew does for quartz in repolishing the surface.

Do you think the future will be better, worse or the same?

Than the last two years! I think it will be better by far.

DBR, one of the UK’s leading stone and conservation construction specialists, has been named as principal general contractor for the Houses of Parliament Restoration & Renewal Delivery Authority’s intrusive survey of the Palace of Westminster.

DBR (London) Ltd, to give the company its full name, has been working on repairs and maintenance at the Houses of Parliament for many years, including the renovation of Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).

The Authority called for submissions to carry out £80million-worth of inspection contracts last year (read more about that here).

DBR is one of seven contractors that will be carrying out the latest £4.23million-worth of surveying work awarded.

The work is due to begin next month (July) and will last 12-18 months. It includes digging 23 boreholes, some reaching 70m deep, to assess ground conditions around the Parliamentary Estate. These will subsequently inform decisions on restoration work required to preserve the 150-year-old building.

Archaeologists from Museum of London Archaeology will be on-site as each hole is dug to record any finds of historical significance. Previous ground investigations in recent decades have uncovered a centuries-old sword and buried fragments of King Henry III’s high table.

DBR will also oversee the inspection of 160 rooms across Parliament, with floorboards being lifted, walls sensitively drilled and ceiling panels removed to explore issues such as wall cavities, the material makeup of the building and the weight-bearing of historic flooring.

Specialist teams will continue to inspect the hundreds of miles of interconnected power cables, gas, water and heating pipes as well as outdated water and sewerage systems.

Small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) are benefitting in particular from the latest contracts, with five of the seven winners being classed as SMEs. The various surveys are planned to begin in July and will continue during the following 12-18 months.

David Goldstone, CEO of the Houses of Parliament Restoration & Renewal Delivery Authority, says: “Our experts are carrying out the most detailed ever surveys of the Palace of Westminster, which will be critical to informing decisions about the essential restoration to preserve our historic parliament buildings.”

DBR’s successful bid, following its appointment to the Survey’s Framework in February, will see the contractor undertake a wide range of work, including the protection of heritage assets during works as well as the careful dismantling and replacement of historic fabric to allow the intrusive investigations to be carried out.

The project team will also support other framework lots, delivering the project objectives without damaging the structural integrity of the building.

DBR’s Executive Director, Adrian Attwood, says: “We already have a long association with the Palace of Westminster, having recently completed two of the site’s most far-reaching conservation programmes: the renovation of The Elizabeth Tower and the decade-long restoration and replacement of the Estate’s 50,000 encaustic tiles.

“This has given our team a deep understanding of this treasured landmark’s specific requirements, meaning they have the unrivalled knowledge and experience to oversee such a complex task, which requires maximum care, lightness-of-touch and attention-to-detail.”

DBR will be working alongside others that are also among the most respected names in conservation construction, including AECOM, Ductclean, Concept Engineering Consultants, Alan Conisbee & Associates and James Fisher Strainstall.

The seventh contract is to the Museum of London archaeologists to record any finds of historic interest.

Highlighting the significance of the appointment, Adrian says: “We can’t wait to get on-site and start working with some of the best and most respected specialists in the business to conserve this unique landmark, helping to return it to its former glory.

“In short, we are honoured to be appointed by the Houses of Parliament Restoration & Renewal Programme, building on the reputation we have established through our previous work on the estate as a leading heritage contractor.”

To find out more about DBR, and its conservation work across the Parliamentary Estate, click here.

A pavement in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been cordoned off, after a piece of stone fell from an unused hotel on 21 June.

Masonry falling off a building is not as rare as some might believe. Usually it a small amount and it generally goes unnoticed, or at least unreported. The latest incident of it in Belfast involved a small amount of sandstone masonry falling from the George Best hotel building, which never opened after the developer involved went into Administration in April 2020. Aine Groogan took a picture of the fallen stone and posted it on Twitter (take a look here).

Police closed off part of the pavement outside the Bedford Street building and warned pedestrians to be careful if they were in the area.

A spokesperson for Belfast City Council told the BBC: “Our building control team have been at the site since early morning and are assessing the site under our dangerous structures legislation. We are working with police and the owner to have the building made safe."

Z House from Barratt Developments claims to be the first zero carbon house by a major builder to substantially surpass the Future Homes Standard. And one of the materials it incorporates is Cosentino’s Silestone quartz (although Cosentino prefers to call Silestone a ‘hybrid mineral surface’).

At the same time, Cosentino has launched a social media campaign in 21 countries, including the UK and Ireland, to emphasise the sustainability of Silestone with its HybriQ+ formulation, which has replaced some of the quartz with pre-consumer recycled glass.

Last year Barratt announced all its new homes will be zero carbon by 2030, and to help it achieve this goal it is using Cosentino’s Silestone Cincel Grey surface, which claims to be carbon neutral thanks partly to offsetting, in the kitchen of the Z House.

The Z House has been built with more than 40 industry partners on the main campus at the University of Salford, Manchester, to showcase the future of sustainable living.

It surpasses the Future Homes Standard by delivering a carbon reduction of 125% measured against 2013 ADL1a, but using Future Homes metrics and targets. It will be occupied and monitored to assess its performance over time.

It is an industry showcase home to demonstrate what is achievable by a mainstream, volume housebuilder.

Meanwhile, Cosentino’s Silestone social media campaign was launched this month (June) to get the sustainability message out to a wider audience.

The company describes the campaign, called Changing The World From The Kitchen, as its most relevant in recent years.

Emphasising Silestone’s sustainability, the campaign presents the vision that big (and small) sustainable choices can originate from the kitchen, so everyone can make small changes that, together, have a big impact.

Damián Granados, VP Global Marketing of Cosentino Group, says: “This commitment to sustainability allows us to send a message of transformation to our clients, collaborators, specifiers and, of course, to end users. A change to build the world we want, to provide solutions to the future issues, and that has its epicentre in the kitchen space.”

Robert Merry heads North from his home in London to revisit a city he has not seen since he was boy. He revels in Northern sandstone, architecture, history and art.

Away the lad.

Someone bought me a weekend in Newcastle, as a present. Not for me to go on my own. They came with me.

It’s a city I had read much about but not visited since I was a child.

In fact, the man who ran the largest department store in Newcastle in those days was my God Father. Who knew!?

Newcastle’s Georgian city centre is the home of sandstone. The Tyne, the home of bridges. Such splendid bridges – The Tyne, Queen Elizabeth II, Edward VII, Swing, High Level, Gateshead Millennium and Redheugh. Victorian mostly, built for railwaymen and their ambitions, with walkways and double decks and cast iron girders and span.

It is a city built on the riches of coal and shipping.

And then there’s those sandstone buildings in Grey Street and Grainger Street and around. It is known as Grainger Town, after Richard Grainger the architect who drew up plans for the transformation of the centre of Newcastle in 1834.

The columns and pediment in front of the Royal Theatre are glorious, chunky, carved sandstone, wearing remarkably well for nearly 200 years of standing in the cooler climes of the North-East.

Some of the stone, around the back streets where no one sees it much, is black with pollution.

But it is a fine city centre. Grainger Market and Central Arcade, with its decorative faience tiles still pristine, as if they were fitted yesterday.

Often described as the finest street in Europe, Grey Street is the jewel in the crown, relatively untroubled by corporate giants, with sandstone façades intact.

Even older church steeples spike the skyline. Inside the Cathedral of St Nicholas, dating from 1091, are fine stained glass windows commemorating the fallen in the South Africa Boar War, and the 1914-18 and 1939-45 World Wars. 20th century stained glass windows, with minimalist, abstract images commemorate industrial pioneers of the city. And all set in sandstone window jambs and cills.

A fine alter rail in an orange/red marble I couldn’t identify. Black and white stone floors, probably Carrara and Belgian black.

And Portland stone. Portland! This far north? It makes an appearance as cladding on the outside of the city’s 1960s civic centre. There is green slate decorative cladding below windows and granite paving and plinths. Arabescato can be seen through the windows, decorating steps and tables. And thin delicate strips of Portland adorn the facade of the circular building on legs at the back, next to the wonderful David Wynne bronze statue of the Tyne River God cascading as a fountain down the civic centre walls.

And the Wren stone, a 500-year-old piece of history set in the wall in the inner space, flanked on four sides by the civic centre buildings.

The story goes that the council decided the city needed to look further than the local sandstone, to reflect a modern, forward-looking Newcastle.

The supplier, Portland Stone Firms, was so pleased with the order that it gifted to the city an original Wren sample stone from St Pauls Cathedral that had been left on the Dorset island that gives its name to the stone.

The council mounted the relic in the walls and carved an explanation of its origin into the new Portland stone around it.

A granite clad plinth by a small pond on the north side commemorates a visit by USA President Jimmy Carter.

At first glance it looks like what it is, I suppose: a rather dated municipal building.

But on closer inspection it is a place of beauty.

The fine sculpture of swans in flight, also by David Wynne, and the bronze seahorses by John Robert Murray McCheyne are more gems.

The building and surrounding streets were empty early on a Saturday morning, leaving us free to wander and stare.

The emptiness was eerie; the stone and sculpture a delight.

Newcastle’s coal and shipping industries are long gone.

Some boat building and ship repair yards still exist further up the river, near Tynemouth, but no more are the heady days of Swan Hunter and the Ark Royal.

We took the metro to Tynemouth Priory and Castle, standing on the top of the cliff above the sea. From there we strolled down through the North Shields quays, past the Corten steel sculpture of a Fiddlers Green Fisherman by Ray Longsdale.

Fiddlers Green is a place in the afterlife for fishermen and sailors lost at sea.

We caught the ferry to South Shields and were interrupted by tug boats pulling and pushing a cruise liner up the Tyne – for repair, I suppose. It was so big it almost blocked out the sun as it passed.

And then back on the Metro to Newcastle Central station, with its sandstone façade and splendidly curved, wrought iron-ribbed arched roof.

I haven’t mentioned The Cluney, The Sage, The Laing or the Baltic Flour Mill (now a contemporary art centre). But there’s simply not enough room for it all here.

A great trip to a great city. Ah yes, it were aareet!

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A new element has been added to the Lichfields website providing the latest analysis and findings around the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill.

The new resource from planning & development consultant Lichfields will offer quick, easy and free access for local authorities, developers, builders, decision makers and other industry stakeholders to news and coverage of the Bill alongside expert analysis and technical insights.

It will be updated regularly as the Bill progresses and takes shape and the consultations on related regulations and policy emerge, highlighting the implications for planning procedures and certain sectors and regions.

The Bill seeks to change the way powers can be devolved to local authorities and will see reforms to the planning system in England.

The Lichfields web resource will also feature blogs on the crucial issues and expert contributions around the key changes with explanations as to why these are important.

Access to the site’s content will be free and visitors can download and save relevant documents if required.

The web resource has been developed by Lichfields associate directors Edward Clarke and Jennie Baker. They say the Bill is one of most important issues currently in the planning realm, so it’s important for decision makers and stakeholders to keep abreast of the latest developments and changes.

Dublin natural stone and tile outlet Deeward Ltd has been told to pay €1,500 to a headscarf-wearing woman after she was asked at a job interview where she was from originally, reports breakingnews.ie.

At Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudicator Marian Duffy ordered Deeward Ltd to pay Narimene Saad the money for discriminating against her on race grounds under Ireland's Employment Equality Act.

Ms Saad was being interviewed by the firm’s Operations Manager, Ray Sood, for the position of a part-time administrative assistant. She said he had asked her where she was from. She told him she was from Germany and he asked here where she came from originally. She said she was born in Algeria.

Ray Sood told the Adjudicator the question was asked in the context of a friendly chat as he is the son of immigrants from India.

He said the company has 70 employees, about half of them non-Irish – 22 from Poland, one each from Brazil, India, Italy, Romania and England, five Croatian and two Russian.

The firm denied that the question was discriminatory. Another candidate was appointed to the position at the company.

Ms Duffy stated that she was satisfied Mr Sood did not ask the Irish candidate and candidates of a different nationality who were not wearing a headscarf about their nationality and concluded: “I cannot accept that it was an appropriate question."

Ms Duffy found that a separate claim made by Ms Saad of discriminatory treatment on the grounds of religion was not well-founded.

WINS (Women In Natural Stone) got off to a great start with its first face-to-face meeting on 15 June since its official launch at The Landscape Show on 3-4 November last year.

There were 70 women from the stone industry and architecture, design and construction that work with the stone industry at The Counting House in the City of London for this networking event.

WINS was formed to give women involved with the stone industry an opportunity to connect and network, as well as providing role models for the next generation of women coming into construction.

The feedback from those who participated has been nothing but positive and the general consensus was that the event was a resounding success. 

Stone Federation manages WINS, which is chaired jointly by Tamsin Pickeral, a Director of Szerelmey, and Becca Cranfield, a Director of Athena Stonecare. Stone Federation CEO Jane Buxey addressed the women in The Counting House, when she thanked the sponsors for their support. They were: Airelimestones, Cliveden Conservation, The Landscape Show, Recclesia, and Szerelmey. 

If you would like to be kept up to date with future WINS events and initiatives, please email sara@stonefed.org.uk to add your name to the mailing list.