Bagnalls Delivers Refresh for the National Maritime Museum
21 July 2023
Bagnalls has been incredibly proud to secure successive tenders for decorative works at the National Maritime Museum, located on the UNESCO World Heritage site in Greenwich.
The completion of this project marked the end of the full façade refresh programme, which began with Royal Museums Greenwich in 2018. We’ve transformed all façades of the Grade I-listed museum buildings from the previous salmon pink shade to a more reverential heritage Portland Stone hue.
This particular phase of the project included the full external redecoration of the Grade I-listed Queen’s House, as well as the East and North wings of the National Maritime Museum. This includes the impactful main entranceway, regularly photographed by tourists and visitors.
The work our team carried out involved paint application in accordance with an Akzo-Nobel – Dulux specification following extensive surface preparation, masonry repairs and timber window repairs. We also completed a full renewal of the existing pigeon deterrent wires.
The project took place across both the Queen’s House and the main museum building simultaneously from late summer into winter.
Bagnalls met the customer’s strict 10-week time limit for completion of the work on the Queen’s House and handed over the wings of the museum in 16 weeks.
There was minimal effect on the normal operation of the museum. We made safe working arrangements, fully considering the risks of working in such close proximity to the general public. Our team used safety signage throughout the site and every member of our team wore photo ID cards and site-specific high-visibility jackets with the customer’s name on them.
We altered our working schedule on the main elevation to accommodate this high-traffic area. Our team erected scaffolding outside of the busy morning opening times. It was also decided that we would only carry out cleaning down and low-level work during the busiest times.
The customer commented that Bagnalls “went beyond the call” to ensure that the work didn’t impact any events on museum grounds. For instance, during the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, there was scaffolding present around the Queen’s House. Our team rapidly installed black debris netting so that the festival’s spectacular light show, SPARK, could project onto a flat surface rather than scaffold boards and metal poles. We installed this netting free of charge as a gesture of goodwill in line with our Community Paintbrush scheme.