In 1999, the Morgan Academy, a much loved Victorian gothic revival school in Dundee, was gutted by fire. The cast roof ironwork, such a typical feature of this type of building, was mostly found, after the fire, in small pieces in the cellar, and was the subject of an archeological investigation to determine what had been where.
We were asked to furnish the refurbished building with nearly a full set of new ironwork externally, comprising some ten tons of weathervanes, finials and crestings. In almost every case, new patterns had to be created using the evidence of the found fragments, in some cases recourse was taken to original pattern books to find missing detail.
We have retained the patterns which have been added to our range of gothic revival cast ironwork. (see 'Casting Design'). We were also asked to recreate new balustrading on two very beautiful new pencheck stone staircases within the building, consisting of cast iron uprights copied from an original and a hardwood handrail. To comply with modern building regulations the landing balustrades were fitted with an additional decorative steel rail, above the wooden handrail, thus preserving as much as possible the line of the original design.
Client, Dundee City Council Architect, Simpson and Brown Main Contractor, Mansell Subcontractors, Smith & Co. Crafted Handrails.
