The scaffolding round the County Hall is going up another level. It must be fairly near the top.
Gangways zig zag near where a lift brings scaffolding to the top.
I could imagine the great Blondin, tightrope-walker, aerialist, and acrobat extraordinaire balancing upon the highest poles.
As nightfall falls there is still more scaffolding to erect tomorrow, when it could get even more extraordinaire.
The businesses nearest the scaffolding round the County Hall are open for business as Usual. That is The Punchbowl …
Scruffs and Throwing Buns.
What was just a concept, a drawing on paper, has become a reality as the builders took over today from the architects and planners. Scaffolding is being erected, and earth cleared where the liftshaft will be dug.
Leadbitter – based in the Abingdon Science Park – won the building contract and will start putting up scaffolding next week. Their brief is “The restoration of the existing listed building, the construction of a new lift from street level to basement, upgrading exhibition spaces…”
They target completion in 8 months time. Key Dates taken from the first of their regular newsletters are:
17th January – Official Start Date
23rd February – First Community Open Morning – between 11am and 1 am where they will chat and answer questions. This is a regular event on the last Wednesday in the month.
29th April – Royal Wedding and Abingdon Bun Throwing Ceremony.
Apart from finding out about building progress, Equal Studio, in charge of the museum side of things, presented their conceptual ideas about how the museum itself would look and were asking for feedback.
They will be able to fit in more display space on three levels for Abingdon history and stories about Abingdon people. The existing display cases will be reused on the top floor, while new multi purpose display cases will be put in the sessions hall …