Chetham’s School of Music completes £1m reinstatement project

Gateley Vinden, the specialist built environment consultancy arm of professional services group, Gateley, has delivered a £1m rebuild project for Chetham’s School of Music after a blaze caused substantial damage to the Whiteley Hall building at its Long Millgate campus in Manchester city centre.

An electrical fault initiated a fire in the early hours of the morning which saw all boarding school students safely evacuated from the accommodation above Whiteley Hall. However, as the sun rose, it revealed the extent of the substantial damage to the Grade II listed building which rendered it unusable. The school gym also suffered water damage as a result of extinguishing the flames.

Conducting the major rebuild project

Gateley Vinden was appointed as the lead consultant to provide insurance claims, building surveying and project management services for the rebuild project.

This saw the team handle the pre-contract works including testing of mechanical and electrical services, opening up works to assess the structure utilising the services of a structural engineer, an asbestos refurbishment and demolition survey, liaison with an expert heritage architect to obtain listed building consent, preparation of a detailed schedule of works and specification, as well as a full tender package and process for the rebuild works and preparation of contract documents.

The team also managed the contract stage elements including contract administration duties and principal designer duties under The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

Working in harmony to provide heritage conservation solutions

The first step for the team was to instruct and oversee a safe full strip out of the building to assess the damage and prepare for works. Once completed, they had to overcome and plan for complexities around the heritage requirements set out by the conservation officer. For example, the team had to repair and reinstate the lath and plaster ceiling with materials needing to be sourced from abroad. Made of cedar wood, the laths had a complex installation method which included being soaked in a vat of water for two weeks. Additionally, the installation had to use Mineral Insulated Copper Clad Cable (MICC) to satisfy statutory heritage conservation requirements which needed to be installed by specialists. As a result, the team had to factor in extra time and costs to the schedule of works and programme to accommodate such required elements during the rebuild works.

Additionally, the team managed complications including the safe removal of asbestos from under the organ, as well as managing a live city centre construction site with restricted access as part of a busy pedestrian zone.

The team also coordinated the requirements of all key parties involved including the appointed contractors and consultancies, as well as the expectations of the insurers and client, while keeping the works on schedule.

The show must go on

The finished result has seen Gateley Vinden deliver a like-for-like reinstatement project for the Grade II listed building. This included liaising with the conservation officer who took samples of the ceiling for lab testing to ensure a 100 per cent colour match of the original paintwork.

While the colour palette and original features have been reinstated, the fresh redecoration has provided a much brighter and more welcoming feel to Whiteley Hall. There have also been some minor cosmetic improvements including a new reclaimed timber floor, as well as upgrading the lighting system to include Bluetooth operation for a better system going forward.

Tim Aitchison, director and head of building consultancy at Gateley Vinden, said: “This was a challenging and complex insurance reinstatement project. It saw our specialist team needing to manage several key stakeholders throughout the process, as well as producing innovative solutions to overcome statutory heritage conservation requirements as a listed building. We’re really pleased with the finished result of Whiteley Hall and look forward to seeing the school put the building back into use ahead of its upcoming events.”

Tom Redmond, joint principal and director of music at Chetham’s School of Music, commented: “The restoration of Whiteley Hall has been an extraordinary process. To bring this magnificent Victorian hall back to life using heritage techniques and materials has been both challenging and massively exciting. Gateley Vinden has been with us every step of the way since Whiteley Hall was seriously damaged by fire in 2021 and we can’t wait for our students and wider Chetham’s community to benefit from their work as music returns to Whiteley Hall.”