St Stephens, Hampstead

Malaysian High Commission

Farringdon Road

Royal Academy of Arts

Bishopgate

In & Out Club

Kew Palace

Tower of London

Banqueting House

Albany Terrace

Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel

Vicarage Gate

Tower Bridge Cafe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUILDING CONSERVATION
Kew Palace, the Royal Kitchens 2012

The Kew Royal Kitchens date from the time of the reign of George III. They were first opened on the 6th of February 1789.

The kitchens were mainly used to provide food for courtiers and servants who attended the king; later the queen.

After the death of Queen Charlotte in 1818, the kitchen fell into disuse, remaining untouched in its original state for almost two hundred years until 2011, when Historic Royal Palaces decided to undertake a major conservation project to bring the Royal Kitchen building back to life. London Stone Conservation won the tender for the Exterior and Interior Stone Finishes Package and was instructed to carry out all stone conservation works in relation to this project. Because of its Grade I listed status and the relevance of its interior stone features, which were mostly original to the building, a lengthy conservation plan was prepared in order to assess each individual aspect of the building.

The result of these conservation works can be seen in the photos below.

 

Project Aims
The brief for the conservation works was to preserve as much of the original fabric as possible, even if this required repairing and conserving overly corroded and structurally failing features.

 

Most care was taken in the repair and consolidation of the interior Purbeck stone flooring. Nearly all original slabs were Purbeck stone, bedded on secondary yorkstone paving slabs. Most of the Purbeck were cracked, broken or showed some sort of deterioration. The slabs were consolidated with lime mortar, and in areas of loss, new sections of Purbeck stone were carefully carved to match the profile of the existing stone slabs.

A new entrance with wheelchair lift was created at the back of the building (now the front main entrance).

The lift area and staircase were clad in hand tooled Purbeck stone slabs, to replicate the appearance of the existing original stone surfaces on the exterior paving and interior floors. The result is a close match to the original intention of the building’s architecture and design.

 

View the Kew Gardens on Google Streetview