Project throwback: Late 2019

As 2019 began to draw to a close, so did the Newington Green Meeting House renovation project.

In this article, we’ll explore exactly what happened over the course of the second half 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.

August was a key moment for the project as it marked the point at which the ceiling renovation was mostly concluded.

“The renovation of the Meeting House ceiling is almost complete,” wrote Marcus, New Unity’s project rapporteur.

“A seamless coat of elegant white paint has been applied to every square inch of the new ceiling.

“One result of this new surface is that the higher parts of the Meeting House are already emitting a lighter and calmer feeling, even though the lower parts of the scaffolding still leave much of the space below in shadowy exclusion,” he added.

The rendering of the front exterior wall with limestone was also finished by this half of the year.

And by November, the Meeting House was back visible in all its glory as the scaffolding was taken down.

Other changes which happened to the Meeting House in the second half of the year included the installation of a staircase as well as what Marcus called a “variety of complex new partitions and concrete cavities”.

A lift shaft, which is a key part of making the building accessible to disabled people, was also installed.