Work continues at Grade I Listed Slyfield Farmhouse and its outbuildings. The shell of the new stables building is almost complete and repairs to the Grade II Listed outbuildings have begun.

The Museum of Wimbledon is located in a listed building on Ridgway Wimbledon. MBA directed operations to conserve the museum room, originally built as a classroom, to suit a new museum installation which will be opened in the autumn of 2022. As with the best architectural projects of conservation, the works are almost invisible. The floor sagged. Why? because a plumber had cut through sturdy Teulon joists mid span. It was stabilised. Two new lines of herringbone strutting were installed, making good to the lime pugging, to lose the floors ‘spring’. Ceilings in lath&plaster were of the age, should we guarantee they will not fall down? They were kept, under-lined with 9mm plasterboard with long fixings back to the joists. Bay windows were extensively repaired, lined with cork internally, repointed externally, and made safe with new discreet stainless steel bars and expanded stainless steel laths. The acoustics are amazing, because a) undesigned resonances in the structure have been addressed, b) no two surfaces are exactly parallel so no hot frequencies, and the room has height. A great space for music practice. Until the exhibits are in and there are plenty of people to soak up around, it remains to be seen if the place will suffer the cocktail party effect, if so, the solution is a big sign ‘speak quietly’.

A planning application has been lodged for two new parsonage houses for St Mary’s Church Wimbledon. The site is within a conservation area and next to the Grade II listed churchyard wall of St Mary’s church which dates from at least the 11th century and possibly earlier, grade II* listed. The development will provide two new highly sustainable houses accessed from a garden courtyard, and improvements to the pedestrian route leading to the church from the south.

Our new Rackets court at Harrow School is working well. A rackets court is one of the most testing technical projects in architecture, the hard, black, playing surface, designed to create its own thermal cracks is good, the subtle underfloor heating, the gallery sight lines, the natural light,  and the soft wrapping to the gallery handrail is in place so that a stray hard, white, 120 mph ball, if the protective netting is drawn back, is less likely to cause injury. In the successful delivery of this project we were privileged to get the advice of Howard Angus a Wyckehamist and former Rackets champion, a well as John Eaton, Rackets pro at Harrow who has inspired a generation of quick witted players.