| Secondary Glazing for
Heat Insulation - An Historic Case Study
The Whitechapel Bell
Foundry - London E1
Originally operating from buildings destroyed in The
Great Fire of London (1666) the present premises were built in 1670 and are Grade
II Listed.
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry has the distinction of being
the longest running manufacturer in Great Britain (Guinness Book of Records) established
in 1570 during the reign of the Queen Elizabeth I and trading continuously for
over 400 years up to the present day, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Famous Whitechapel bells include Big Ben and the Liberty Bell and the
Company has been exporting since 1747 when a set of bells was sent to St. Petersburg,
Russia.
Because of the listed status of the building, replacing the
windows was not a practical option and indeed, although not the originals, they
are very old but still in good serviceable condition.
A modern standard
of Heat Insulation, however, had become essential for both the comfort of employees
and to combat ever increasing heating costs.
During 2008 we were awarded
the contract to Secondary Glaze the buildings' Georgian sash windows.
This was achieved using our Heritage range of Counter-Balanced Vertical Sliders
fitted with Tilt-In facility to allow easy cleaning of the reverse side of the
glazing - a unique feature essential for most London sash windows because of the
lack of reveal depth to facilitate cleaning between the inner and outer panes
of glass.
The Foundry's sash windows are a mix of white painted finish
and light oak finish.
Our stock white and stock brown frame finishes
provided a good match in both cases.
Windows fronting onto the busy
Whitechapel Road at ground floor level have sandblasted glass vanity screens fitted
between the sash windows and the secondary glazing.
As an added bonus,
although this work was carried out for heat insulation, there has been a noticeable
decrease in noise from outside.
|
