Thursday, May 28, 2015

In Detail: Conservation Work on the Royal Garrison Church Woolwich

The restoration of the circa 1890 Salviati mosaics in the Royal Garrison Church is entering its final phase, as conservators with Skillington Ltd. spend the next few weeks on site to finish reinstalling the remaining pieces.

Funded by the Heritage of London Trust and working under the supervision of the English Heritage, the conservation work was necessary due to the poor state of the mosaics resulting from decades of exposure to environmental conditions after the bombing of the church in 1944.

Most of the conservation was carried out in situ, including stabilization of mortars and loose tesserae, disinfection and cleaning. In the decorative border around St George, there was also the replacement of old repairs with new tesserae in the same tone.

Another company had previously removed some of the mosaics, and these were restored at Skillington Ltd.'s workshop. Those conserved pieces are now being installed, which would complete the mosaic restoration project.









Sources: 
The photographs and information about the conservation work have been kindly provided by Kalypso Kampani of Decorative Arts Conservation and Restoration. Ms. Kampani wrote the original proposal for the restoration grant and is the head conservator on the project.