SUSTAINABILITY

FEATURES
Lendlease brings Georgian buildings back
to life at Woolwich Artillery Barracks
form what is believed to be the
longest Georgian façade in Europe.
Lendlease was also contracted to
carry out work on the existing married
quarters accommodation, 9a West and
10a East Kings Troop building, which
dates to 1787.
The longest Georgian façade in Europe, gets a facelift © Lendlease
In 2010, Lendlease was commissioned
by the Defence Infrastructure
Organisation (DIO) to manage the
£13m refurbishment programme of
the Grade II* listed Sergeants’ and
Offcers’ Messes at the Royal Artiller y
Barracks in Woolwich.
English Heritage, now known as
Historic England, and Greenwich
Council’s Conservation Offcer were
consulted at an early stage to agree
the materials and methodology of
repair to be used in the restoration
of these 18th century buildings. A
very good working relationship was
developed with the key heritage
bodies during the refurbishment,
which ensured the project was allowed
to progress with minimal intervention.
The projec t fell into t wo phases;
the first phase involved the
refurbishment of the Sergeants’ Mess,
which was completed in 2012. Phase
t wo work s, which involved work s on
the Of ficers’ Mess, star ted in 2013
and were completed this year; the
formal handover was achieved on
the 1st July 2015.
Lendlease was appointed as the
principle contractor, responsible
for delivering all aspects of the
project. The primary task was the
refurbishment of four interconnecting
buildings which form the Sergeants’
Mess on the east and four more
buildings on the west that make
up the Offcers’ Mess. Together; the
Sergeants’ Mess and Offcers’ Mess
The refurbishment of the buildings
included full repairs to all existing
timber floors and roofs; all roofs were
recovered with new slates chosen
to match the existing ones. During
this stage of the program, temporary
scaffold roofs were constructed
over the whole building to allow all
roof finishes to be removed and the
structure surveyed and repaired. This
part of the project was integral to
safeguarding internal areas and the
entire structure from the risk of water
ingress at a later date. These were the
largest span scaffold roofs ever used
in the UK.
A full soft strip of all existing
finishes and ceilings was required
to allow floor and wall surveys to be
completed by the structural engineer,
who provided repair details for all
works. Temporary support was also
required to allow replacement of floor
and roof timbers and forming new
door openings through the existing
structural walls.
Repairs to weather vane tower © Lendlease
The weather vane tower restored to its former beauty © Lendlease
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Sanctuary 44 • 2015