St Pauls Cathedral

St Pauls

Project Information

St Paul’s Cathedral is a grade 1 listed Anglican Cathedral located in the City of London. It is an internationally renowned destination for visitors. Following the passing of the Equality Act, the building needed to be modified to enable step free access.  

We were appointed to carry out substantial structural modifications to the existing staircase of the famous Whispering Gallery, so that a lift could be installed through the central core.  

The existing spiral staircase was wrapped around a brick built circular hollow central core which extended up from the ground floor. The central core needed to be widened to accommodate a new lift and also extended downwards by two storeys, through the Cathedral foundations, to the Crypt and Cafeteria level where wheel-chair users were already able to gain access to the Cathedral.  

Excavation works through the existing foundations were therefore required as well as tunnelling works in order to create a fully level corridor connecting the lift to the Cafeteria area.

highlights

h1

Enlarging the stair core

In order to increase diameter of the core, the original brick liner was partially removed and progressively replaced with a thinner section of reinforced concrete.

Excavation works  

Pynford beams and support columns were introduced progressively around the base the existing spiral staircase as excavation progressed.

Soot-stained Debris

The existing Cathedral foundation had been constructed using debris from the building that existed prior to the Fire of London in 1666 which accounted for the soot-stained debris uncovered when we partially broke out the existing foundation.

Project
St Pauls Cathedral
Engineer
Alan Baxtor
Contractor
Services
Rigs
Duration
Value
Location
St Pauls
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Project summary
Project summary
Project
St Pauls Cathedral
Engineer
Alan Baxtor
Contractor
Services
Rigs
Duration
Value
Location
St Pauls
Status