Oakvest – Recreating the perfect London skyline
The rooftops of London have always held a magical charm.
Whether it´s Peter Pan sweeping Wendy and her siblings on an amazing flight over the rooftops of Bloomsbury, Bert and his fellow chimney sweeps enjoying a night on the tiles in an attempt to impress a certain Mary Poppins or James Bond taking in the Capital from atop Whitehall, London’s iconic skyline has unwittingly been the star of numerous movies and television programs since the cameras first rolled. The city´s unique Dickensian streets and atmospheric alleyways sits harmoniously next to imposing modern skyscrapers and converted warehouses – a movie director’s dream.
However, just as with the building´s facades these rooftops need the care and attention of city planners working in conjunction with developers to ensure that they will live on for further generations to admire. Indeed Development Consultant Oakvest has taken this one step further with their latest project in Belgravia. Not satisfied with simply repairing the central roof pavilion on Grosvenor Gardens House they have decided to reinstate it entirely, one of the key elements of the return of this building to its former glory.
This project will be particularly intricate as it involves re-constructing a large section of the 19th century roof which faces Grosvenor Gardens just minutes from Victoria. In order to achieve this, Oakvest and their expert team of architects are working from historical photographs of the roof and extrapolating this information to recreate the 1200 ft2 section.
Leon Kalkwarf, lead architect on this project, comments,
“This is such an exciting project to be working on with Oakvest. The most interesting and indeed challenging aspect of this restoration is the need to replace the most prominent, middle section of the main roof facing on to Grosvenor Gardens. We will be basing details on the two remaining “turrets” but this will be no easy task and nothing about this project is off the shelf. We will be buying in natural slates, copper detailing and lead work for the dormers, – but most of the work will be hand crafted by experts in their field.
“There will be new round-topped dormer windows installed at 6th floor level along with new stone fronted oeil de boeuf windows within the central pavilion. New cast iron cresting to the ridge of the main roof will need to be replicated from original existing cresting and installed where missing or severely damaged.”
Whilst not always as obvious as the frontage or garden of a property, roofing is an essential part of the finished product – not only to keep the outside out but is essentially the finishing touch for a home.
So next time you are standing on a London Street look up – and spare a thought for the incredible skill and expertise that made our skyline what it is today.
For more information on Oakvest´s planned restoration of this iconic building in London Victoria, call today on 0207 811 3855 or visit www.oakvest.co.uk.