Project: John Ruskin Primary School, Camberwell, London

Client: London Borough of Southwark

This Victorian school is located in London Borough of Southwark. It was designed by Thomas Jerram Bailey, the school first opened in 1899.

The building was in need of thoughtful refurbishment, during the tender period it became clear that some masonry had become loose and was in danger of falling into either the road or the school playground. Realising the dangers, Barwin erected an extra wide safety gantry to the entire perimeter of school. To do this as quickly as possible entailed the team being on site with the scaffolding specialist until late into the night and weekends. This action was taken in order to allow the school to conduct its’ business as usual. Once the scaffolding was in place we undertook a full survey to the external facade and removed all the stone that was in danger of falling and consolidated the remaining stone and brickwork. Using our knowledge and skilled labour we were able to reinstate and repair in situ the stone units and this in turn saved our client both time and money by solving the need to new units manufactured and installed.

The scope of works included:

• External repairs and maintenance to all elevations of the main school building
• Brickwork repairs including stitching, repointing, replacement and matching
• Sealing cracks to decorative terracotta corbelled units.