CEO visits Gainsborough’s House

Double winners at Manchester property awards

Awards for 2020 and 2021 presented by Mike Foy

Suffolk gallery trip dubbed a ‘real treat’ by CIOB CEO

CIOB’s Caroline Gumble visited the restoration works at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, where a new wing is being added which is set to make it the largest gallery in the county

CIOB members Paul O’Connell

MCIOB and Steve Wood FCIOB, of Thomas Sinden, hosted a behindthe-scenes tour for CIOB chief executive Caroline Gumble of the restoration works at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, Suffolk.

Gainsborough’s House is the birthplace of 18th century painter Thomas Gainsborough and has been operating as a museum since 1961. Restoration work began in 2019 to turn the Grade I-listed Georgian townhouse into a national centre for art.

The historic buildings will be refurbished and redisplayed with a new three-storey wing constructed that will create the largest gallery in Suffolk. The doors will open to the public this spring.

Gumble said the day was “a real treat”, calling the hand-made reticulated brickwork facades, made by local company Bulmer Brick and Tile, “extraordinary craftsmanship”.

A new roof has been constructed for the gallery using hand-crafted copper – and will include a camera obscura. Internally the new gallery will form two main spaces for public exhibitions. One, the Gainsborough Gallery, will have silk wall linings manufactured by Humphries Weaving, another local company.

The main construction challenges were limited access and storage, and restricted room to manoeuvre, as the site is close to houses and businesses. The logistics required very careful planning and a lot of work to liaise with local residents and businesses.

During her visit Gumble presented awards to site supervisor Frank Maloney and site manager Glen Neal for the best site audit scores across Thomas Sinden sites for 2021. ●

ELLIOT BROWN

The new threestorey wing will create the largest gallery in Suffolk The original Georgian facade of Gainsborough’s House

The Oglesby Centre at Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester

CIOB president Mike Foy presented awards to two winners at the Greater Manchester Chamber Property and Construction Awards in March.

The dinner was a double celebration as it crowned the winners of both the 2020 and 2021 awards.

The Oglesby Centre at Hallé St Peter’s was named the winning building for 2020 and the winner for 2021 was RHS Garden Bridgewater.

The Oglesby Centre, an extension of Hallé St Peter’s, is a high-quality, high-performing building yet sympathetic to the Grade II-listed former church.

RHS Garden Bridgewater is the fifth RHS garden and one of the largest gardening projects undertaken in Europe in recent years. The new world-class visitor centre, known as the Welcome Building, provides a gateway to the gardens.

Other CIOB guests at the event included: Tom Francis MCIOB, managing director, Ankura, and CIOB Manchester Hub chair; David Maiden MCIOB, project director of AECOM; Tony Grindrod FCIOB, contracts manager at Vinci Construction; Adrian Rooney, managing director of CBC J Greenwood (Builders); Neil Houlihan, CEO and founder of Project Recce; Charlotte Hamman MCIOB, head of built environment at Wienerberger and CIOB Manchester Hub committee member; and Hazel Yorke, CIOB business development manager, North & North Wales.