2 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 Briefing Context Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton 21 George Street, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9JU Tel 01507 602567 email editorial@ihbc.org.uk Editorial Board Fiona Newton (chair) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Michael Taylor (main features) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2012 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA Tel 01747 871717 Fax 01747 871718 email context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Institute of Historic Building Conservation, should be sent to the IHBC Business Office at Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November.The remaining copy deadlines in 2012 are: July, Issue 125 14 May September, Issue 126 16 July November, Issue 127 17 September Althorp’s new face A £2.5 million restoration programme for the Grade I listed Althorp, famous as the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, has included renewing its mathematical tiles. These had been placed over its facade to create the impression of brickwork in the enlargement by the architect Henry Holland (1745–1806), hiding the red brick of the earlier 16th century building. The mathematical tiles are laid in an overlapping pattern, with the thicker, lower section remaining visible and the upper section hidden beneath the row above. Attached to the underlying structure, they are tuckpointed to form a flat surface. For this restoration, tens of thousands of stainless steel fixing pins were inserted before being lime pointed to keep the tiles in place. Giles Quarme and Associates was the architect for the restoration andWilliam Anelay the contractor. New life for Tyne tunnels Planning permission has been granted for a £4 million refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnels which pass under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow. The tunnels were opened in 1951 as Tyneside’s contribution to the Festival of Britain. At their peak around 20,000 journeys were being made through them every day. Today only around 20,000 journeys are made through the tunnels every month. The biggest change will be the replacement of two of the four original escalators with glass inclined lifts (all four of the original escalators are now permanently out of service). The other two original escalators will be left in situ, opened up to public view. The tunnels, which included the UK’s first purpose-built cycle tunnel, were the earliest to be used by both cyclists and pedestrians. The two run in parallel, the pedestrian tunnel with Althorp: mathematical tiles hide the red brick of the earlier 16th century building. TheWaygood-Otis escalators are the world’s longest continuous wooden escalators.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=