Bonsers Restoration has completed a project at London’s Waterloo Station which saw a specialist team work through the night ensuring minimum disruption to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who use the station each day.
Working as a specialist sub-contractor to Bam Construction and First Call Building Services, Bonsers cleaned and repaired the Portland Limestone and brickwork of the original Waterloo station building in preparation for a new floor of high-end retail units to be added.
Jo Bonser is managing director at Bonsers. She said: “This was a great project to work on because Waterloo Station is such a well-known and iconic London building. Four of our team, made up of cleaning and restoration specialists worked through the night from Sundays to Thursdays because the station is far too busy at any other time.
“We faced many challenges, for example getting all the plant and materials to and from the working areas during a short working time frame, applying any temporary protection and removing all evidence of our presence before busy commuters appeared and shops reopened. All fumes had to be controlled otherwise we ran the risk of alarms being triggered which would lead to a station shut down.
“Additionally, all access was by mobile scaffold towers and cherry pickers and we had to think about containment of waste and water generated from the Doff and Jos cleaning systems. All these elements made this piece of work all the more interesting and rewarding for us.”
The new retail units that have been launched as part of the overall £220m Waterloo Station balcony development include beauty store Kiehl’s, eateries such as Yo Sushi! And Carluccio’s as well as clothing brands Joules, Fat Face and Oliver Bonas.
There has been a railway station at Waterloo since 1848 but the building in existence today was completed in 1922 with 21 platforms and a concourse 800 feet long.
