Issue 40 winter 23 web - Flipbook - Page 93
and re-laid, with some flags needing repair and others
requiring replacement. The asphalt to the deck also
needed replacing. Existing electric lighting was to be
replaced with new electric lighting, fixed to the walls
similarly to the earlier oil lights.
Nursemaids’ tunnel is constructed of London Stock
bricks. Its portals are faced in a Roman Cement stucco,
each comprised of a rounded arch with a projecting
keystone and plain panels in the spandrels flanked by
fluted Doric columns supporting a plain frieze. On either
side wing the walls are scored to imitate ashlar stonework.
The south portal is topped by an iron railing. Internally
groin vaults are supported by brick pilasters, and there are
concaved walls to each bay. At the south end a doorway
set in the east wall leads to a room which may have been
the watchman’s room or a room for storing lanterns. The
tunnel is paved with York stone, except at the centre
where an asphalt covered deck crosses the Metropolitan
Line, and is supported by cast-iron and brick vaults above.
Having carefully prepared the project the CEPC engaged
the conservation contractor Stonewest, who started work
on site in August 2023 and are due to complete in 2024.
Following construction of the west and south terraces, the
Crown Estate Paving Commission came into existence in
June 1824, the Government having implemented an Act
to transfer, from the existing Local Authorities, the care
and maintenance of the roads and sewers on the Crown
Estate, from Whitehall to the Regent’s Park, to a new
organisation. Its Commissioners were given wide authority over roads, footways, lighting and garden maintenance
and were empowered to levy rates on neighbouring
properties. Later Acts extended the Commissioners’
powers and added further streets into the CEPC’s control,
with those residing in properties within the CEPC’s
demise having access to Park Square and Cresent
Gardens.
Above, tunnel during conservation, with lead paint now removed
Recognising the significance of Nursemaids’ Tunnel and
the need for its repair and conservation, CEPC appointed
Peregrine Bryant Architects and the engineers Hurst
Peirce and Malcolm to advise upon and specify necessary
works, with NT Surveying providing QS services and
Goddard Consulting advising on CDM.
The west retaining wall to each path needed to be dismantled. Once a new reinforced in-situ concrete retaining structure was installed it would be faced with a single
skin of original bricks laid in lime mortar and pointed with
a penny-struck joint. Both eastern retaining walls needed
repairing in situ. New storm water drainage was required
below the paths leading to the tunnel and within the
tunnel. Stone gutters to either site of each path necessitated repair and re-bedding, with some replacements
necessary before the paths were re-laid. Lead paint
needed to be removed from the tunnel walls, and the
Roman Cement stucco to each portal needed repair
and conservation. The railings needed renovating and
redecorating, with a new railing to be added above the
north portal. The Tunnel’s York stone floor had to be lifted
Above, as scars were infilled an original light shaft was revealed
Above, long section though Nursemaids Tunnel
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