Old Deanery London

Overview

Mason Clark Associates were invited to carry out works on the Old Deanery by the Church of England Commissioners’ Office following work we had previously undergone on Bishopthorpe palace in York, the official residence of the Archbishop of York. Mason Clark’s work contributed to the overall refurbishment of the Old Deanery, the Bishop of London’s official seat. The 350-year-old building required extensive backlog maintenance and structural repairs to be carried out prior to the commencement of full engineering works. The Old Deanery was the first building in the City of London to be fully rebuilt after the great fire of London in 1666, being constructed between 1672 and 1673, hence careful treatment and extensive preliminary works were required to engender the best possible outcome for this Grade 1 listed building.

Tasks

Mason Clark’s overall purview concerned Conservation engineering, Structural engineering, Contract administrator duties, Quantity and Party wall surveyor duties. As part of our duties, Mason Clark were required to carry out Structural assessments, Careful intrusive investigations, Advice on surveys, Specialist investigations, a Schedule of conservation repairs; The design of modern interventions i.e. platform lifts, increased mobility access. We had to take a number of specific factors into consideration including the presence of a leaning boundary wall was being pushed over by two London plane trees and needed to be remedied before the wall collapsed. MCA were required to manage unforeseen building defects whilst simultaneously addressing and managing client expectations.

Activity

Since the leaning boundary wall was on the point of collapse, Mason Clark had to negotiate between the city of London, Historic England and the onsite tree specialist. We designed temporary works to keep the wall in place before designing a permanent underpinning of the wall and reconstructing the wall to ensure its stability. Throughout, we ensured we liaised closely with the project Conservation Architects (Caroe), as well as the Church of England to ensure our works dovetailed and that the project benefited from transparency, clarity and open communication. MCA’s role expanded from the starting position of Conservation engineer to Structural engineering, Contract administrator, Quantity surveyor and Party wall surveyor as the project progressed. We ensured that throughout, we used the most highly experienced engineers and surveyors at our disposal due to the nature of building, its age, its status as a listed building and its historic value.

Results

Final occupation of the building will be occurring shortly. Mason Clark are pleased that their relationship with the Church of England, and the office of the church commissioner has remained very good throughout the project. We were delighted to be part of a project that has given such an important, historic building a vital, new lease of life for the next thirty years.