Richard Griffiths Architects at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

June 2024

‘Retrochoir Bay 6 North- St. Alban’s Cathedral’

RGA were recently invited to submit a drawing for the annual celebration of artists and architects at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer exhibition, London.

We are delighted that our work ‘Retrochoir Bay 6 North- St. Alban’s Cathedral’ was accepted for this year’s exhibition, curated by our friends at Assemble Studio. Within the carefully arranged ‘space for making’ of Gallery 6, this piece sits proudly alongside colourful creations in a room flooded with architectural creativity and innovation. RGA’s technical repair drawing of the west porch at St. Alban’s Cathedral, highlights the technical and comprehensive care that RGA pour back into our built heritage to both regenerate sites of significance and expose the many layers of history and time within them.

 

Technical repair drawing: St Alban’s Cathedral, Bay 6 North Elevation, 2006

The works carried out at St Alban’s Cathedral, during the 17 years of Richard Griffiths’ Surveyorship, included all aspects of conservation, reordering and upgrading.

Over 7 years, cleaning, repairs and conservation of the historic fabric took place. Substantial works were carried out to the dirty and decayed remains of the cloister and to the medieval west porches, involving stone and mortar repair, Doff cleaning and shelter-coating;  releading plain and stained glass windows;  conserving medieval wall and ceiling paintings.

We also undertook alterations to the layout of the church to provide for liturgical needs within the context of a building of the highest national importance, including a complete re-ordering of the nave, under organ area and choir, the commissioning of 7 sculptures for the pulpitum screen, and a new stained glass window.

Further alterations were carried out to provide for the needs of visitors, including the provision of equal access throughout the Abbey and the design of a new Welcome Centre.

RGA also resolved the extraordinary technical challenge of hanging a new radial set of bells in the Norman tower.

 

Image Credit: Dennis Gilbert, 2017