Work begins on £2.5m project for iconic Main Building
Contractors have begun a major project to restore the School’s Main Building – the first important work on the structure since it was extended in the 1950s.
The project comes after QE secured a £2m Government Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) grant, with an additional £0.5m being contributed by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s charity.
The work, which is likely to take several months, will include fitting new roofs across the entire building, as well as significant measures to improve sustainability, and a host of other improvements and repairs.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I am so pleased that we were successful in securing the funding we needed to deliver this important element of our current, hugely ambitious Estates Strategy. As ever, I am immensely grateful to our parents and alumni: it is their generosity that has made possible the substantial FQE contribution.
“While it is a little sad to see Main Building now wrapped in scaffolding, it will all be worth it next year when we see it restored to its original 1932 splendour, with new roofs and polished-up elevations. This work is an important element in ensuring QE remains ‘a state school like no other’ for our pupils.
“My thanks go to our Head of Facilities Management, Silvia Shann, her industrious team and our trusted contractors, who were busy over the summer holiday getting everything ready for the work to proceed.”
For its first three-and-a-half centuries, the School was based in Tudor Hall in Wood Street, High Barnet.
By the 1920s, QE had outgrown this home, so in 1932, it moved to its current premises on Queen’s Road, with HRH The Prince George, Duke of Kent, opening the new building (pictured).
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 work will involve fitting 130,000 new roof tiles for the main pitched roof areas, the replacement of multiple flat roofs, and work on the external elevations, including re-pointing.
Several leaks and instances of mould on internal walls will be rectified, followed by redecoration as necessary.
Sustainability measures will include the installation of improved insulation in Main Building, as well as the fitting of solar panels on the pitched roof facing south west to one side of the Main School Hall. The few remaining original windows will be replaced with units that are in keeping with the building, but now double-glazed.
“Generations of Elizabethans have been educated in Main Building and we have, therefore, always sought to be good stewards, keeping the building in good repair,” said Mr Enright. “This work will not only improve the day-to-day environment for our current pupils and staff, it will also ensure the building continues to serve the generations to come.”
The work is expected to be complete by the spring or summer of 2026.