St Mary Abbots, Kensington.

When the commissioners of St Mary’s Abbots decided it was time to replace the church’s temporary disabled ramp with something more permanent, I have to admit that we at Triskele Conservation had our doubts. Times change, of course, but when it concerns a masterpiece of St Mary Abbots calibre, a reluctance to reach for the bolster and hammer is only fit and proper. But when we saw the plans for an elegant sloping radius of which Gilbert Scott himself might have been proud, well we saw the light. A plan to reuse the ancient paving ensured one of London’s most frequented cloisters would retain its ancient fabric and patina . With a Christmas deadline fast approaching time was of the essence. The discovery of human remains under the slabs was definitely not meant to be part of the schedule. While the archaeologists took over, works came to a halt and the team waited with bated breath. So did the church choir, whose sell out performance of Handel’s Messiah was imminent. When finally confirmation came that the remains dated from an earlier incarnation of the church, when the ground under the cloister would have been part of the church’s graveyard, it was hallelujahs all round.