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Conservation News

9th November 2010

The Lapidarium of St. Paul's cathedral is receiving a clean!

The arrangement of nearly 500 archaeological stones has been a fascinating element of the Cathedral’s south Triforium since the 1930s. After decades of dust, the stones are at last enjoying a clean at the skilled hands of conservation students from the City & Guilds of London Art School.

Students Deborah Ault, Ian Nurock and Guy Arzi at work
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Students Deborah Ault, Ian Nurock and Guy Arzi at work

Overseen by cathedral conservator Theresa Heady, BA students Deborah Ault, Guy Arzi and Ian Nurock have established a temporary cleaning station where they are inspecting, cleaning and marking stones with an individual inventory number. They are also taking great care to preserve any of the paintwork that once vividly decorated the pre-Fire cathedral. The stones are from many different phases in the construction of the building (begun in about 1090 AD and consecrated in 1300 AD) and include fragments from a variety of architectural elements: bosses, mouldings, columns, capitals and corbels. “It’s great to know we are helping to conserve and document this important archaeological record,” said Guy.

Please follow the interview on YouTube through the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYX38lrDMfU