Education | Heritage
Roof renewal and external heritage refurbishment of two historic buildings at Chelsea College of Arts, delivered on a live campus.
CLIENT
University of the Arts, London
CONTRACT VALUE
£420,000
CLIENT
University of the Arts, London
CONTRACT VALUE
£420,000
Chelsea College of Arts occupies the former Millbank Barracks on Atterbury St, beside Tate Britain in Westminster. Working for UAL, with Ridge as contract administrator, we renewed the roofs and carried out external repairs to two of the site’s most important historic buildings. We started with the c.1898 Gatehouse, a listed building that houses the campus security control room and handles every goods and vehicle arrival. We then moved on to the Cookhouse, the college’s main gallery and degree show venue. Both had suffered years of water ingress from failing roof coverings.
We stripped both roofs and renewed them in natural Welsh slate, matched to the original. Traditional leadwork was carried out throughout, including Code 6 batten roll roofing, gutter linings and valleys. New insulation and discreet ventilating slates improved thermal performance without changing the historic roofline. At the Cookhouse, we uncovered and repaired the timber lantern crowning the ridge. We also carried out Portland stone repairs, lime repointing and soft red brick replacement.
Once we stripped back the Gatehouse roof, it became clear that further structural repairs were needed, including replacing rafters and wall plates. At the Cookhouse, we installed timber cladding to the parapet stonework and relined the box guttering so it was ready for the new leadwork.
As the project progressed, the scope grew to include further repairs, new LED lighting and a full redecoration of the leak-damaged gallery, which left it a bright, airy space again. Even with the extra work, we still finished within the original programme.
“Carpentry works were required beyond what we ever anticipated, but the site team had a can-do approach and didn’t allow this to have a detrimental impact on project delivery.”
– Michael Banks, Senior Project Manager, University of the Arts London
The Gatehouse stayed in use throughout, so careful scaffold planning and daily liaison with the facilities team kept staff, students and the public safe. Weekly photographic progress reports kept UAL updated at every stage. When a high-end fashion event took place at the college during the works, we replanned deliveries and logistics around it.
What our clients Say
The team at Gunning London were very pragmatic in their approach when it came to the processing of waste materials and were able to reclaim, recycle or re-use 95% of the materials used.
Pete Newman – Property Manager, University of the Arts London
