Sash window repairs and restoration in the City of London
We restore, repair and draught-proof timber sash windows in the City of London and in the Temples, Smithfield and Charterhouse Square. The City's surviving Georgian houses, chambers and Victorian commercial buildings carry large timber sashes. Much of our work here is for chambers, landlords and institutions.
The City's windows
The City lost most of its houses to fire, commerce and war, but pockets survive. In the Inner and Middle Temple, the chambers around the courts carry tall sashes in brick, some from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and many rebuilt after the Second World War in the same manner. Around Smithfield and Cloth Fair, Georgian and earlier houses keep smaller-paned sashes. The Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings that make up much of the rest have large timber sashes in stone or brick, often in long runs on every floor. Access, more than condition, is usually the hardest part. Old crown glass survives in some chambers and is worth keeping.
What matters most in City of London
In the City, access is usually harder than the windows themselves. The Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings carry large timber sashes in long runs on every floor, in buildings full of tenants, so restoration is planned around tenants and building managers as much as around the timber.
Those long runs of big sashes are also where draught-proofing pays its way, closing the gaps at meeting rails and beads across a whole elevation. The chambers in the Inner and Middle Temple have tall sashes in brick, and some of them still hold old crown glass, which makes careful glass and glazing the third priority there: panes worth keeping, lifted and reset by hand. Around Smithfield and Cloth Fair, the smaller-paned Georgian sashes ask for the same care on a domestic scale.
What we do in City of London
Conservation in City of London
Much of the City's older fabric lies within the Corporation's conservation areas, including Temples, Smithfield and Charterhouse Square, and the Inns of Court's own surveyors' requirements apply alongside the Corporation's. Our guide to conservation areas and Article 4 directions explains how it works. Check your own address on the City of London Corporation's conservation area and Article 4 map, and we will go through what your windows need at the survey. Where an application does need drawings, we can prepare them. That is separate work and we quote for it.
Common questions
Do you work in the Temple and the Inns of Court?01
Yes. Work in the Inns is usually arranged through their own surveyors and carried out in occupied chambers, so we work on the sashes from inside, room by room, and keep noise and dust to a minimum. Much of the work is repair, re-cording and painting, timed for quieter periods where the Inn prefers. Chambers windows are often large and heavy, so rebalancing is a regular part of the job.
Can you take on windows across a whole commercial building?02
Yes. We survey each window, set out its condition and quote in phases, so a landlord or managing agent can plan the work around tenants. Repair, draught-proofing and painting are often done together while each sash is out. We set out the condition of every window in writing, which helps with planning maintenance and service charges. Work can be phased floor by floor.
Do you cover all of the City of London?03
Yes: the Temples, Fleet Street, Chancery Lane, Smithfield, Cloth Fair, Charterhouse Square, Bartholomew Close and Bishopsgate, and on into Clerkenwell and Farringdon. Send photographs for a free digital survey first. Many City buildings have building managers, and we work through them on access and timing.
Book a survey
Send us photographs of your windows and we'll tell you what needs doing and what doesn't, with a written quotation. The digital survey is free.
Free digital survey with written quotation