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Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Nick Hufton, James Newton
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Manufacturers: Allgood Ironmongery, Archive Racking, Enlightened AV works, Fall arrest 8KB, Fastglobe, Gartec, Geotextile & fill materials Abbey Floor, Granville survey works, HDG Construction, Hanson Concrete, J Apted, KB lift, KB roofing, KB stairs, Kipling Contracts, Lansdown Surveys, N Heath Formwork, New Stone KB, PAGeotechnical Ltd, Radon venting, Phoenix Plastering, +11
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Lead Architects: Geoff Rich, Alex Morris
Text description provided by the architects. The site of Bath Abbey has been the center of Christian faith in the UNESCO City of Bath for more than 1300 years. The recently completed Footprint Project ensures that it remains so for generations to come, through repair and conservation work and much-needed new spaces and amenities. The £19.3 million program of restoration, building works, and interpretation will help to secure Abbey’s physical future and improve its accessibility, hospitality, and service to the city, as well as provide flexibility for worship.
Within the Abbey, the main focus was the repair and conservation of the historic floor. The works have revealed large parts for the first time in 150 years and allowed archaeology to take place that has added to the story of the church and the city. An environmentally-friendly underfloor heating system uses waste heat from the City’s thermal springs providing improved thermal comfort and a welcoming environment inside the Abbey.
Much of the Footprint Project is behind the scenes and out of sight. Within the vaults and neighboring Georgian buildings are a new song school, office and meeting spaces, volunteer facilities, learning and exhibition spaces, as well as an archive room. These new spaces will serve the Abbey and those who work in it, repairing the Georgian buildings, but also creating unexpected spaces within them for learning, administration, and for the 60-strong Abbey choir.
Now that the works are complete, it is possible to experience the full volume of the glorious space of the Abbey as it was during the Georgian period: from the lofty fan vaulting, and the descriptive and poignant wall memorials, to the magnificent historic floor below. The Church, supported by its new amenities will provide a beautiful, functional space for traditional and contemporary worship and community use.
Abbey Floor. The Footprint project was initiated to repair the failing Abbey floor. FCBStudios led the project to conserve and stabilize the subsiding floor, including an extensive program of archaeology and installation of the hot spring water-powered underfloor heating system. The work also included the documentation, repair, and relaying of over 2400 stones in total which pave the floor.
The works reveal all of the 891 carved memorial stones on the Abbey floor and show us the names of nearly 1500 people commemorated there. The stones represent a cross-section of Bath’s society from 1625 to 1845, including the important Georgian period chronicled by Jane Austen. The research, interpretation, and conservation of the floor restore a crucial missing part of the story of Bath and its social history. The lifting of the floor gave the opportunity to rethink the Victorian heating system.
A new underfloor heating system uses heat drawn from the hot spring water that surfaces at the neighboring Roman Baths.The renewable heating system significantly reduces the carbon emissions associated with the former gas-powered heating for the Abbey, whilst also allowing a range of new spaces to be utilized and more intensive use of existing spaces. The removal of the nave pews at Bath Abbey and the repair of the historic
Abbey floor provides an opportunity to appreciate Bath Abbey in a new way, reminiscent of the pre-Victorian era. The nave pews have been replaced with carefully selected stackable chairs that can be arranged to suit the wide range of activities that take place in the Abbey, providing much-needed flexibility for contemporary worship and community events.
