Spire Court

Spire Court luxury apartments were created through the conversion of Canon Street Baptist Church a grade II listed building and former place of worship.

We were excited to be given the green light to repair, restore, re lead and remake most of the leaded windows surrounding the church.

There were initially four phases / areas of windows that desperately needed attention. This expanded into a few add on areas that had also deteriorated over time.

All the windows that were removed were either re leaded or made from new and fitted with new saddle bars and copper ties. These windows were then pointed with a lime mortar, cleaned and ties painted.

We then fitted 8mm uv coated Polycarbonate sheeting cut to individual stone profiles for each leaded light, fitted with stainless steel rivets as protection for the windows and to act as a secondary glazing.

You can find below details of each individual phase.

Nave Windows

Phase I was to fully remove the Eight Clerestory windows in the Nave. Each window consisted of three diamond leaded lights.

Each window was completely re leaded, re using all the unbroken glass.

The process at the workshop once removed was to take the leaded windows apart and carefully clean the glass that could be re used.

The windows were then re leaded and soldered using matching glass and lead profile to the same size as the windows that were removed.

These windows were then re fitted as per the method above with Polycarbonate sheeting protection.

Polycarbonate fitted on the left and waiting to be fitted on the right

Aisle Windows

Phase II was to restore the Aisle Windows in the Nave.

This was made up of eight windows with two leaded lights in each window and a Cinquefoil tracery above.

It was decided by the customer that these wouldn’t be re leaded but instead, repaired. However, one window had been seriously damaged and needed to be be re made as half of the window was missing.

We also came to realise that the window opposite was also in in disrepair so this too was completely re leaded.

All windows had polycarbonate sheeting cut to profile and fitted to the outside.

Fitted Window With Poly Carbonate Fitted

Rose Windows Part 1

In Phase III we were required to make three Rose windows from new. Each of the Rose Windows had six outer tracery panels and a centre tracery panel. There were also six small tracery panels that circled the outside of the window that also needed to be made.

These windows had leaded panels in situ but the existing glass and lead was in such a bad state that is was decided that it would be better to make the windows from new.

We took a template of each window and cut the all the pieces of glass for each tracery panel. These were then leaded and soldered using matching glass colour and texture and lead profile as the windows in situ.

Once the new windows were ready for fitting we removed the old windows and fitted the new as per the method above with Polycarbonate sheeting protection.

Rose Windows Part 2

This was a continuation of Phase III. This part of the phase was to make two larger Rose Windows from new but the customer wanted to change the colour scheme of these windows. He decided on an Amber and Yellow theme for one of the windows and a Grey and White theme for the other.

Each of the these Rose Windows had eight outer tracery panels and a centre tracery panel with eight small tracery panels that circled the outside of the window.

As with the three rose windows above these windows had leaded panels in situ but the as we were using a different colour scheme there was no need to remove them to be re worked.

Once the new windows were ready for fitting we started on the Amber window and then the Grey window. The old windows were removed new windows were fitted as per the method above with Polycarbonate sheeting protection.

Amber Outer Panel Glass Cut Ready For Leading

Amber Window Outside With Poly Carbonate Fitted

Grey Window Outside With Poly Carbonate Fitted

Narthex Window

Phase IV required us to completely make from new 5 x 15ft tall leaded light windows and 22 Tracery panels.

This window had fibreglass panels fitted into the stone where there had once been leaded glass windows. The Tracery were badly damaged and weathered so these were replaced with new.

We took templates of all of the Tracery windows and sizes for the 5 main lights.

The Tracery glass was cut, leaded, soldered and cemented to the templates we took.

The 5 main lights needed to be designed and a working template drawn up to work from. Due to these windows being 15 ft high, the windows were made in 4 sections (3 main body sections and the arch). The glass was then cut, leaded, soldered and cemented as above ready for fitting.

Once the new windows were ready for fitting we removed the old Tracery windows and fibreglass sheeting in the main lights and fitted the new windows as per the method above with Polycarbonate sheeting protection.