Restoring the Elizabeth Tower

The team tackling the restoration of the Tower was determined to fix this – and to return the dials to their former glory. Parliament’s Architecture and Heritage team worked with paint experts at Lincoln University to analyse over 160 years’ worth of paint applied to the clock tower. Together, they identified six different colour schemes that had been used over the years, comparing these to the original drawings for the building in order to unearth what the clock dials looked like a century and a half ago.

With the original colour scheme identified, a team of specialist stained glass experts from South London worked to find a perfect match for the Prussian blue and gold on the dials and clock hands. All 1,296 pieces of glass in the clock dials were then replaced by hand – with each person working on the project given the opportunity to install one of the precious mouth-blown segments.

The rewards of success

For many on the Elizabeth Tower project team, this was one of the most rewarding experiences of their career.

The scheme was a roaring success on multiple levels: the work was done to exceptional standards of quality, with an excellent safety record, and the project has been shortlisted for, and won, a number of prestigious industry awards.

For our high-performing professionals, seeing all their hard work pay off to such an extent is a feeling they’ll never forget. Photo by ©UK Parliament Mark Duffy

Reawakening interest in traditional skills

The site team at Elizabeth Tower consisted of around 90 people at its peak. With everyone working together in a space just 12m square, there were plenty of opportunities to learn from each other.

In such close quarters, large contractors and individual artisans were able to swap experience and expertise, exhibiting a level of care for their work that inspired everyone who came in contact with them.

This triggered a passion for the heritage sector, and several of our team members have gone on to obtain qualifications in historic construction and manage other heritage projects – demonstrating that the Elizabeth Tower scheme has left a truly enduring legacy. Photo by ©UK Parliament Jessica Taylor.

The passion of true craftspeople

It’s not often you see such a concentration of skill and passion on a construction project as there was on Elizabeth Tower. The specialist artisans working on the scheme had been honing their craft for years or even decades –this project was the culmination of a career spent contributing to some of the best-known buildings in the nation.

One such person was John Reyntiens, the specialist responsible for crafting the handblown pieces of glass in the Tower’s four clock dials. The son of Patrick Reyntiens, himself a notable stained glass artist, John has restored glazing at the Speaker’s Residence, the House of Lords, Westminster Hall and Windsor Castle, and has installed glass artwork at Shakespeare’s Globe, Southwark Cathedral and two Cambridge colleges, among many other illustrious commissions. Photo by ©UK Parliament

With three decades of traditional glasswork under his belt, he’s a sterling example of the kind of expertise it took to bring Elizabeth Tower back to life. Another such example is the Cumbria Clock Company, which has spent 33 years restoring some of the UK’s most iconic timepieces.

They maintain the country’s oldest clock, at Salisbury Cathedral; they’ve repaired and automatically wound the most important astronomical clock at Hampton Court Palace; they’ve completed major work on clocks at Leeds Town Hall, Manchester Town Hall and Manchester, Durham, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals. Their knowledge and passion proved an inspiration to the whole team.

Witness dedication in action