Westminster Hall Roof and Lantern

Project Info

Over a three-year period, this heritage project has expertly conserved Westminster Hall’s exquisite medieval hammer beam roof and repaired its gothic roof lantern.

A Grade-I listed building within a World Heritage Site, Westminster Hall was originally completed in 1097 before being remodelled in the late 14th century into the gothic masterpiece it is known as today, with the addition of its magnificent hammer beam roof. With thirteen 660-ton timber arches, it was the largest spanning structure in Britain for five hundred years.

Taking cues from prior 1920s work to the roof, the repair approach to the medieval trusses involved the skilled use of traditional carpentry methods and physical fixings to provide reversible and honest repairs to the structure.

Having been bomb-damaged in World War II and rebuilt in the 1950s, the lead-clad timber roof lantern was also re-detailed and repaired, using salvaged materials where possible, and requiring specialist carpentry work.