Ram Quarter, The Brewers House – Lath and Plaster

The scenario

Ram Quarter is a major redevelopment project in the centre of Wandsworth incorporating ten newly built residential blocks alongside the refurbishment and conservation of a complex of eleven listed buildings. These Grade II and II* listed buildings date from between 1720 and 1880 and formed the Ram brewery. The site itself lays claim to being the oldest continuously operating brewery in Britain with brewing operations on the site since 1512. The brewery buildings have been carefully integrated into the Ram Quarter masterplan which was conceived as a series of interlinked public urban spaces.

We were approached by Ardmore Construction to provide plaster restoration and repairs to two of the heritage properties known as “the brewer’s house” and “the brewer’s house extension”. These properties now comprise part of Coopers Lofts, 14 high quality apartments in the listed brewery complex. Our work centred on the replacement of lath and plaster ceilings, new lime plaster walls and renewal of cornice to match the existing designs.

Our solution

Both buildings received restoration work in keeping with their listed status, which meant the ceilings received new timber laths, and lime plaster applied in three coats. Specified walls also received new applications of three-coat lime plaster. In total we repaired approximately 180sqm of ceilings and 130sqm of walls with new material, with further patch repairs to lime plaster walls totalling 600sqm. The beautiful results can be seen in the images above.

In order to match new cornice to the original period designs, a site squeeze was taken from each room to capture the pattern, enabling new moulds to be created in our workshop. The newly manufactured cornice was fitted and decorated to match the new walls and ceilings.

Ram Quarter was winner of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers “Preservation and Conservation Award” 2019.