Repairing a Famous London Tower

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23169, 15 October 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Repairing a Famous London Tower

Work Will Take Years to Complete

ONE of the astounding sights of London at present is a great tower of steel; and it is likely to remain as one of the sights of the town for the next few years. The Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament is having its stonework renovated, and the whole structure has been enclosed in a complicated network of steel scaffolding supporting platforms for the> workmen. This network is made up with 000.000 feet (over 56 miles) of steel

tubing, more than enough to reach from London to Brighton, and the various lengths are held together by 70,000 fittings. There are more than 500 tons of steel in the scaffolding, much of which was used in the Coronation and Jubilee stands. This wonderful new tower has been erected by the British Steel Piling Company. According to Arthur* Mee's London volume the Victoria Tower is 75 feet 6quare and 336 feet high to the top of the pinnacles and 400 feet to the top of

the flag-staff, so that tho flag flies higher than the Cross on St. Paul's Dome. The flag which flies from it is ]2 yards long and nine yards wide. Tho tower is built in 11 storeys and is supposed to be absolutely fireproof. It is used for storing precious documents, and to it are brought tho voting papers after every General Election, to be kept as long as needed. So injurious is the London atmosphere to tho stonework that many pieces of masonry will need to be replaced, and it is possible that the four pinnacles will bo dismantled and re-

built. Each one is about the sizo of an ordinary church steeple. Jt will be long before the Steel Tower of Westminster disappears and tho stonework gleams forth again. For the renovation work is likely to take five years. The accompanying photograph of tho Houses of Parliament, London, was taken before the scaffolding was erected. The Victoria Tower is the large one on the extreme left.