Durham
·
2021
Transept Library
Built
1702
Listing
Grade I
Scope
Survey, repair, lighting
Duration
26 months
Area
420 m²
A college library with failing roof timbers, repaired in place while the books stayed on the shelves.
A college library from 1702. Death-watch beetle had reached the roof trusses and two had started to drop. The college could not close the library for a year.
What we did
We built a scaffold deck above the shelves so the books never moved, then spliced new oak into the trusses in place. The lighting was replaced with low fittings on the reading desks. The library stayed open for all but nine days.
Then and now
Drag across the picture to see the building as we found it and as it is today.
In the rooms
“Our readers barely noticed the scaffold. That was the whole brief.”
Dr Helen Marsh, librarian
