1 Poultry
Styles Façade Solutions® (formerly Thomann-Hanry®) delivered a scaffold-free facade cleaning across this heritage landmark’s 2,200m² banded sandstone façade, using our low-pressure, water- and solvent-free Façade Gommage process. This gentle method was essential for the porous buff and red sandstone, avoiding the staining risk posed by conventional commercial cladding cleaning techniques.
Operating from a self-contained, truck-mounted cabin, our commercial façade cleaning services minimised disruption at this busy central London site, straddling two main roads. Fine Aluminium silicate powder, projected below 4 bar, lifted dirt while being extracted and filtered within the closed system.
For subsequent restoration, our stonemasons used MEWPs instead of scaffolding, completing the entire commercial building cleaning and repair project in just 12 days — restoring this post-modernist landmark to its original glory.
Solutions provided
NOTHING FOWL ABOUT THIS FAÇADE CLEAN…
The sandstone façades at 1 Poultry in Bank were designed between 1985 and 1988 by James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates for Peter Palumbo’s City Acre Property Investment Trust Ltd and built between 1994 and 1998. Featuring a striking symmetrical composition on a tightly constrained site, the building exemplifies Stirling’s masterly work in interlocking geometrical volumes and his distinctive use of materials, colour and motifs.
The mixed-use office and retail sandstone structure has significant architectural and design interest as an unsurpassed example of commercial post-modernism on a monumental scale. Intricate in its planning and rigorously executed, it is widely considered one of the key developments of the post-war era.
After exterior alterations were proposed by the owners in 2015, a consortium of tenants, neighbours and leading architectural experts led a campaign to secure listed status for the building. Consequently, it became the youngest building in the UK to gain a Grade II* listed status in 2016 - just 18 years from construction to designation.
Styles Façade Solutions® highlights the natural sandstone detailing revealed at 1 Poultry, London, following the Façade Gommage cleaning process, with the stone's distinctive swirling grain pattern now clearly visible.
PRESERVATION IN A HIGH-DENSITY ENVIRONMENT
Styles Façade Solutions® was instructed to clean and restore the 2,200m2 façade of this heritage landmark as part of a routine maintenance programme. One of the main considerations for appointing Styles Façade Solutions® was our scaffold-free, low-pressure, water- and solvent-free Façade Gommage cleaning process.
With a banded façade of rusticated buff and red sandstones, the need to use a cleaning method that was not only sensitive to the delicate structure of the stone but would also not etch or damage the surface was paramount. Sandstone façades have a higher level of porosity; if the wrong cleaning method is used, topical dirt and grime can be pushed deeper into the substrate, causing permanent staining.
Another critical constraint was that the site straddles two main roads in central London, with constant traffic and public transport. This presented another compelling reason for using the Façade Gommage cleaning process, delivering scaffold-free facade cleaning that requires no fixed structure to be erected on site. As the system operates from a self-contained, truck-mounted hydraulic cabin, it can easily be removed from the site outside of operational hours, ensuring minimal disruption to the property and the surrounding area.
ADVANCED CRAFTFSMANSHIP AND MINIMAL DISRUPTION
The system projects a fine powder of Aluminium silicate at a pressure of below 4 bar to gently lift the surface dirt and grime from the façade. This powder is simultaneously extracted back into the cabin, where it is trapped in a closed- system curtain of water. The solid materials are then filtered out and removed from the site at the end of each working day.
For the subsequent masonry restoration phases, our team of stonemasons and restorers, once again forwent the need to cloak the building in unsightly, time-consuming and expensive scaffolding. Instead, we used Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs) to apply the final touches to this cleaning and restoration project. In only 12 days, the building was returned to its original glory as an unbridled example of commercial post-modernism.
“It has been a pleasure working on the UK’s youngest listed building, adding to the extensive portfolio of past heritage façade restoration projects the team at Styles Façade Solutions have been responsible for since our launch in 2005. The striking, banded sandstone façade is now resplendent in all its glory, showing that irrespective of age, heritage buildings deserve a cleaning process that respects their architectural integrity.”
Mark Styles, Managing Director, Styles Façade Solutions
See the links below for more examples of the results Styles Façade Solutions® (formerly Thomann-Hanry®) can deliver for your business.
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