more than just
bricks & lime mortar

This is an article which has published in the Winter edition of The Companion, the magazine for the College of St George. Windsor Castle.

Located at the bottom of Denton’s Commons and adjacent to the Vicars’ Hall, the building we now know as Marbeck House has through its various incarnations overlooked St George’s Chapel since the Chapel’s construction started in 1475.

It has been home to Chantry Priests, Chapter Clerk, Canon’s house, Organist and Chorister lodgings, Director of Music and Song School for the Choir. Following careful investigation and planning, and with funding secured, the restoration of Marbeck House commenced on site in July 2008.

In August 2008 I was asked to keep a record of the restoration works for the benefactor, Mr Peter Cruddas. Over the following ten months I have had the privilege of visiting the site and seeing these buildings peeled back to their structure, scrutinised and meticulously restored.

We take for granted so much of what surrounds us. As we pass by, concentrating on our destination, we make brief comment on that quaint building or marvel at another’s scale. A wander around St George’s - the Chapel, the Cloisters and Denton’s Commons - could rapidly consume our vocabulary of adjectives of praise. For those who live and work in the College these buildings and their history form a backdrop to their lives. But how often do we stop and look, really look and appreciate the details that make them so important.

For Marbeck House I observed from the scaffolding, the roof, the curtain wall and from within, and it was the many small architectural details that made the greatest impression on me. As I photographed these details, the well-honed crafts and the people who practised them came to the fore. It became apparent that much of the restoration is reliant upon the same hand skills that had shaped these buildings over the previous five hundred years and the tools, with the exception of the occasional power-tool, had changed little.

The front elevation (south) now looks glorious and can be enjoyed as the passage of time will see the new oak repairs age into the old. With the scaffolding gone, much of the external restoration is difficult to see and appreciate, but is safeguarded for the future and contributing to what makes this building whole: the repairs to the chimneys and careful re-pointing, the hand brushing away of carbon deposits from carved details on the upper-string course of the Curtain Wall, the formed lead, shaped stone, structural timber, and so much more.

If you are passing, pause for a moment and take the steps up to the Lookout where you can see at close quarter, on the west elevation, the fine workmanship and the beauty of the structure - the basket weave brick and lime mortar and the cut in oak repairs to the timber frame.

Photography captures a moment in time and can tell many stories. We can look at photographs from times past and learn much about buildings and the people who lived and worked in them. It became clear in this instance that photography of the process should include images of those involved, their tools and materials as well as the building, helping to create a record of our times for future generations.

The restoration has not only secured the future of a building of national importance, protecting its fabric and carefully updating it to meet the demands of the twenty-first century, it has also enabled a better understanding of Marbeck House and its place in the history of St George’s.

David Clare

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