Well, here’s the thing. There was me thinking this now messy and fenced off area in Union Street was because contractors were working below, shoring up the vaults.
Takes a chat with one of the beleaguered traders to set me right. Seems a piece of cornice above the pillars fell away, and the fence was put up to protect the public.
However, those previously mentioned vaults are too delicate to take the weight of any scaffolding that would need to be erected to do any repair, so it’s apparently been decided to remove any obvious flaky bits and hopefully remove the fencing in time for Christmas trading.
In the meantime, contractors will have to come up with another way of completing the repair.
Does anyone know how they are getting on under Bath Street, strengthening the vaults?
That’s another street full of scaffolding, and it doesn’t look as though the damaged pillar in front of the Bath Thermae Spa is likely to be repaired any day soon either.
I spoke to one of the stone masons. Where possible they are using the original drums of the column but some are have to be recreated. I think that is what is taking the time as they are very slender. Given how shoddily built the whole street was when it was new, it’s amazing it stayed up long enough for Cyril Beazer to discover how bad it was in 1963.