Client:
Architectonics
Background Information
St Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church is situated in the Gallowgate, Aberdeen and was built in the late 19th century by Father John Comper. St Margaret’s is a Category B Listed Building.
Harper and Allan Masonry were contracted by Stuart Boon Architect from Architectonics to undertake conservation and repair works to the Comper window situated to the West of the building.
Scope of Works
At some point between the 1960’s/70’s the sandstone window surround externally had been coated over with a reinforced dense concrete. After initial investigation works by Graciela Ainsworth to remove a small piece of concrete, this uncovered a very soft and friable high clay content sandstone.
The first task undertaken by Harper and Allan was to remove all the dense concrete to make a full assessment of the sandstone window surround. The assessment found that the stonework was in such a poor friable condition, mainly due to the high clay content and quality of the stone and accelerated decay due to dense concrete covering, that the stone was unrepairable and would require full replacement.
Stone samples from around the UK were sourced to find an aesthetically pleasing match to the original but obviously a stone of much greater quality.
Stained Glass Window Removal
The original leaded stained glass window as carefully removed by Cannon & MacInnes and taken to their studio in Glasgow for cleaning and minor repair works. The stone surround was then down taken and removed from site.
Stone Dressing
The new stone surround was carved offsite to match all the original stones profile using ‘Dukes’ Sandstone.
Stone Building
Once complete this was then installed onsite built using a traditional lime mortar to match existing.
Installing Stained Glass Window
Once all lime mortar pointing works were undertaken then Cannon & McInnes returned to site to reinstall the newly refurbished original leaded stained glass window and new stainless steel protection grill to complete window refurbishment works.
