13-15 Moorgate
Styles Façade Solutions® (formerly Thomann-Hanry®) was instructed by Europe Arab Bank, the then owner, to clean 13–15 Moorgate, including its King’s Arms Yard elevation. The low-pressure, dry Façade Gommage cleaning process was ideal for listed building façade cleaning, protecting the statues and carvings.
Ultra-fine aluminium silicate particles, blown across the surface at 4 bar, gently lifted decades of grime to reveal the pale Portland stone while retaining its patina. The powder was captured and filtered, the water recycled.
Working from a self-contained cabin removed the need for scaffolding, keeping the site secure – vital for a bank. The Grade II* listed building was restored in eight days, minimising disruption in the City of London.
Solutions provided
BANKING ON A CLEAN FAÇADE IN MOORGATE
Moorgate, in central London, takes its name from the medieval gate built into the London Wall in 1415, which opened onto the marshy fields of Moorfields. The gate was demolished in 1762, along with most of the remaining wall, and its stone was sold to the City of London Corporation for £166 (just over £44,000 today) to strengthen the central support of London Bridge. The modern street of Moorgate was laid out between 1834 and 1846 as the main northern approach to the new London Bridge.
The area quickly grew into a dense cluster of commercial and financial buildings within the City of London. In the mid-1880s, the Metropolitan Life Assurance Society commissioned the architectural partnership of Sir Aston Webb and Edward Ingress Bell to design its new offices at 13-15 Moorgate. It was one of the pair's first major commissions, shortly before they won the competition to design the Victoria Law Courts in Birmingham.
The building was designed in a striking Franco-Flemish and classical style, with a Portland stone façade above a polished granite base. The façade is adorned with statues by William Silver Frith representing moral and civic virtues, including Confidence, Prudence, Justice, Truth, Thrift and Self-Denial. Crowning the building is the prominent 'Golden Lady', a figure taken from the Society's 1885 coat of arms, who holds a skull symbolising mortality and a serpent representing wisdom. The building was granted Grade II* listed status in 1972.
Styles Façade Solutions® makes listed building façade cleaning safe, discreet and efficient. Its self-contained Façade Gommage cabin eliminates scaffolding, protects windows and signage, and keeps sites secure, so occupants can carry on working as normal while decades of grime are gently removed from historic stonework.
SCAFFOLD-FREE FAÇADE CLEANING IN THE CITY
Styles Façade Solutions® was instructed by Europe Arab Bank, the then owner of the building, to clean both the Moorgate and King's Arms Yard elevations. Using the low-pressure, dry Façade Gommage cleaning process, the team was able to carry out this intricate listed building façade cleaning without damaging the statues and ornate carvings.
The Façade Gommage cleaning process uses ultra-fine particles of aluminium silicate, a by-product of aluminium smelting, which are blown across the surface at 4 bar to gently but effectively 'rub' away built-up dirt and grime. The used powder is vacuumed back into the cleaning cabin and trapped in a curtain of water. This slurry is then pumped to a filtration tank, where the powder is separated out and the water is recycled to the cabin.
Decades of urban grime were carefully lifted from the intricate stonework, revealing the pale, warm tones of the Portland stone beneath. Ideally suited to listed building façade cleaning, this heritage-grade process removes surface dirt while retaining the structure and patina of the stone, delivering results in keeping with conservation principles.
YOUR BUILDING IS IN SAFE HANDS WITH STYLES FAÇADE SOLUTIONS®
Because the process is carried out from a self-contained cleaning cabin, there is no need for unsightly, costly and time-consuming scaffolding, and the site can be left safe and secure at the end of each day. Security is a key concern for banks, so this is a significant added benefit of the Façade Gommage cleaning process: the building's security is never compromised between cleaning sessions.
The team at Styles Façade Solutions® restored the impressive Grade II* listed building to its original appearance in just eight days, minimising disruption to neighbouring businesses in the City of London, the UK's leading financial district.
“Faced with an intricate façade clean in the heart of the City of London, and with the building's security a key concern, the client turned to Styles Façade Solutions® to meet both challenges. As one of the UK's leading façade cleaning specialists, we have built our reputation on achieving outstanding results with minimal disruption to our clients and their neighbours. The transformation at 13-15 Moorgate shows why Styles Façade Solutions® is the partner of choice for façade cleaning across the UK.”
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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