Project throwback: Early 2019

2019 was a major year for the Newington Green Meeting House, as it marked the first phase of major works on this historic building.

This blog post will go back over some of the key events which occurred in this part of the year.

The renovation work at the Meeting House has been generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We’d like to thank Marcus Duran, New Unity’s project rapporteur, for the research and photographs used in this article.

The renovations kicked off in earnest in February of 2019 when the project boards were put up on the site.

By March, all sorts of changes had been made. Rooms had been emptied, rubbish had been swept away and flooring had been stripped back.

Within a month or so, diggers were inside the building and so-called “needles” were placed into the ground to help support the building’s weight during the works.

Then, a birdcage scaffold was put up in the main body of the building to allow builders to access the ceiling.

And by the end of May, scaffolding had been put in place around the outside of the building, allow major external works to get underway.

Here’s what Marcus, our project rapporteur, had to say.

“The complete scaffolding and hoarding structure is now firmly in place,” he wrote.

The apple-green colour of the wooden hoardings chimes perfectly with the full-bloom of early summer across the road on Newington Green.

And he also provided a description of the signage.

“The new project information boards also provide passers-by with a much improved sense of the scale of change happening within the building,” he said.