Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Tom Copp Nigel Crowe Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Rebecca Madgin Andrew McClelland Fiona Newton Louise Priestman Gordon Sorensen Jonathan Taylor Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2022 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA 01747 871717 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 Context on-line archive Past issues of Context can be viewed on the IHBC website. The archive provides a searchable database and reference for key articles. See www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/ context_archive. 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. Context themes and copy deadlines Context is published four times a year in March, June, September and December. The next three themes and copy deadlines are: Diversity, September, issue 173 (8 July) The IHBC at 25, December, issue 174 (7 October) East Anglian coast, March, issue 175 (13 January) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 C O N T E X T 1 7 2 : J U N E 2 0 2 2 Briefing Smithfield restoration Julian Harrap Architects (JHA) has led the three-year restoration and conservation of the ‘outer crust’ to West Smithfield General Market (1881–83) building, originally the London Metropolitan fruit and vegetable market, ahead of its conversion to the Museum of London. The latest works have involved the repair of external and internal brickwork and Portland stone, reinstatement of lost carved elements, and repairs to the timber roofs, floors and windows. JHA retrieved Sir Horace Jones’s early competition schemes and original specification for the buildings, which listed the materials and quantities used, and special techniques that Jones specified. ‘We wanted to show the building’s marks of time by adjusting the levels of cleaning to the outer crust,’ says Georgia Politi, an associate at JHA. ‘The staining was removed but the patina was preserved, which exposed important features of the building’s past, such as a Victorian, hand-painted advertisement on Farringdon Street.’ The practice employed secondhand materials where possible. The huge existing roof slates were largely re-used, combined with second-hand and new, handmade bricks, and new and salvaged lead. For the timber repairs to the windows, floors and roofs, salvaged 19th-century Baltic pine was used from the dilapidated parts of the building, after it had been catalogued and numbered. ‘We enjoyed studying the original carvings, which represented fruit and vegetable motifs,’ says Politi. ‘By working closely with the stone carvers, we used these as inspiration for new designs when doing the repairs. The selection of the window colour was debated at length before agreeing on a dark stone colour.’ The left-hand section of West Smithfield General Market’s facade has been restored. The rest will be part of the next phase. (Photo: Craig Matthews)
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