In all its glory! QE’s newly resplendent Main Building
New drone footage reveals the School’s historic Main Building looking magnificent following the removal of scaffolding.
The building, opened in 1932 when the School moved from Tudor Hall on Wood Street, is currently undergoing its biggest overhaul since the 1950s.
The £2.3m project was recently paused to avoid noise during A-level and GCSE examinations, but work is now set to start again and should be completed over the summer holidays.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It’s wonderful to see the roof of the Main Building looking so smart after the replacement of 130,000 tiles, to admire our newly restored cupola, and to have a bird’s-eye view of all the solar panels that have been fitted.”
The School this week welcomed the new intake of Year 7 pupils for an induction day. By the time they start in September, not only will the Main Building project be complete, so will a number of other campus improvements, including:
- Phase I of a two-summer project to completely refurbish the Biology department, including all the laboratories
- Installation of air-conditioning across the teaching spaces in the very large Fern Building
- External works to the Fern Building and Shearly Hall.
The principal scaffolding around the Main Building was removed during the recent half-term holiday.
Main Building combines classic 1930s features – such as the iconic bottle-green glazed tiles that still adorn the classrooms and corridors – with a homage to QE’s Tudor roots through its brick and stone masonry, and oak panelling. It was extended with new wings as the School continued to grow in the 1950s.
The project includes the replacement of ten flat roofs, work on the brick and stone (including re-pointing), rectifying mould on internal walls, replacement of rainwater goods (drainpipes etc.), and the redecoration of around 50 classrooms and other rooms. There is also a raft of environmental measures, including the fitting of modern insulation, as well as the installation of the solar panels on the south-facing pitched roof towards the rear. The few remaining original windows will be replaced with double-glazed units specially produced to be in keeping with the building. The work included specialist restoration of the copper-and-wood central cupola (tower).
After the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s charity committed some £0.3m, the School bid successfully for £2m in Government Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) grants to fund the work.
“All of the above, including the Main Building project, would be impossible without support from The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s: I am immensely grateful to all the parents and others in our Elizabethan community who contribute so generously and so consistently,” said Mr Enright.