Boones Chapel

Product Used: Traditional

Colour: Elizabethan

Description:

Recently restored and roofed using Keymer's Elizabethan hand made clay roof tile from the Traditional range, Boone's Chapel is a Grade I listed former almshouse chapel dating back to 1680. One of just two Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Lewisham, it had until recently been high up on the English Heritage "Buildings at Risk" register.

The building, once attributed to Britain's most respected architect, Sir Christopher Wren, has been saved by the Blackheath Historic Buildings Trust thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Architect's and co-funders of the project, Research Design, specified Keymer's hand made Elizabethan roof tiles to match the colour and the texture of the original plain ridged chapel tiles.

Madeleine Adams of Research Design commented, "The tiles are hand made in a traditional way, which means they have the subtle irregularities and the undulating softness of vernacular tiles. We were looking for an authentic material and a quality that matched the original. We visited the works in West Sussex, and saw the process of making the tiles for ourselves. It produces a completely different effect to mechanically produced products."

Boone's Chapel is a single-storey rectangular building of just 45 square metres. Its complex pyramidal, hipped roof has three pediments and a hipped projecting bay and is topped by a cupola. The challenge was to make an insulated, breathable roof, to modern standards, within the profile of the historic structure. The three pediments have approximate pitches of 30 degrees which is below the recommended pitch for roof tiling. This is not uncommon in historic buildings, and can be resolved in the specification of the membrane, and careful workmanship.

Historic tiles from the original chapel roof were salvaged and recycled as cladding to the new, timber frame service building constructed in the chapel grounds.

Situated at the heart of the community of Lee in Lewisham, the chapel had 1500 visitors on the first two open weekends. Local people followed the 10 month long restoration with enormous interest and feedback on the roof has been excellent. Immediately following its installation people remarked on the appropriateness and suitability of the new roof. Not only is it entirely in keeping with the building, it has made a very positive improvement to Lee High Road, and is a beacon for the continued regeneration of the area.