Hello. Long time no post. We have, however, been taking lots of
photographs behind the scenes and would love to share some of these with
you.
Even those of us who are on familiar (nay, intimate) terms with this building sometimes struggle to recognise isolated images of a corner here, a doorway there or the intersection of two walls somewhere else. Bricks, beams, nooks and crannies, disused and broken windows and staircases that we have walked past twenty times a day and looked at countless times become strangely unfamiliar when photographed in their altered, mid-repair state. If it can be challenging for us, it must be even more confusing for you so let’s take it a little at a time and start with a room that will be very familiar to regular Wilton’s visitors: the Cocktail Bar.
Spot the Difference - The Cocktail Bar
This is how it looked when it was first set up for The Great Gatsby in 2012:
Image by Andrea Marchi
By the time we were preparing to clear the room ready for work to start, it was looking more like this:
Things started happening pretty fast after the Anelay team arrived and by mid-August, the doorway had been opened up to what is actually its original width:
By the end of August, it was no longer so much a room as a space, with a very different atmosphere to the one we'd been used to:
A month later, new steel beams were in place between the cocktail bar ceiling and the floor of the room above, which would become the new Learning & Participation Studio…
… and, a couple of weeks later, new joists were in place above:
and below:
as well as the beginnings of the electrical infrastructure.
We also discovered the remains of an internal bell-ringing system under the old floor:
How very Downton! Now, as you can see, we have a new door frame, floorboards and a ceiling and this is definitely beginning to resemble a usable room rather than an empty space:
It won’t be long before our new, extended cocktail bar and cabaret space will be treated to its finer embellishments and we’ll update you as and when. Meanwhile, look out for another Spot the Difference showing the changes in another part of the building, coming soon…
Image by Andrea Marchi
By the time we were preparing to clear the room ready for work to start, it was looking more like this:
Things started happening pretty fast after the Anelay team arrived and by mid-August, the doorway had been opened up to what is actually its original width:
By the end of August, it was no longer so much a room as a space, with a very different atmosphere to the one we'd been used to:
A month later, new steel beams were in place between the cocktail bar ceiling and the floor of the room above, which would become the new Learning & Participation Studio…
… and, a couple of weeks later, new joists were in place above:
and below:
as well as the beginnings of the electrical infrastructure.
We also discovered the remains of an internal bell-ringing system under the old floor:
How very Downton! Now, as you can see, we have a new door frame, floorboards and a ceiling and this is definitely beginning to resemble a usable room rather than an empty space:
It won’t be long before our new, extended cocktail bar and cabaret space will be treated to its finer embellishments and we’ll update you as and when. Meanwhile, look out for another Spot the Difference showing the changes in another part of the building, coming soon…