Faithful replication of historic wall tiles ensures seamless restoration of Grade 2 college building

Craven Dunnill Jackfield has successfully completed the replacement and restoration of hand glazed, historic wall tiles for the Grade 2, former East Ham College. The project involved the origination of accurate models for 39 unique designs and the formulation of several metal oxide glazes, which were fired and applied seamlessly to match the original tiles of the 1903 building.

Rick Mather Architects lead the refurbishment project, in consultation with English Heritage. Jackfield manufactured the tiles and worked in close collaboration with specialist tiling and terrazzo contractor WB Simpson & Son. The newly manufactured wall tiles are such an exact match to the originals and so expertly installed that the difference in age of around 110 years is indiscernible to the untrained eye.

The Edwardian Grade 2 listed building was home to the Old Technical College and forms part of the larger East Ham Civic Campus. It is now the new Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre.

The official foundation stone of the original building was laid in 1903 and is located in the entrance porch, surrounded by a decorative backdrop of brown glazed ceramic tiles. Many of the tiles in the outer porch, the main vestibule, stairs and ground floor corridors had been extensively damaged over the life of the building. Whilst it was possible to salvage some of the original tiles by cleaning, many others were missing or so badly damaged that they needed to be replaced.

The level of manufacturing complexity on the project was significant. Approaching 1400 tiles were required across 39 unique designs, of which 813 had to be manufactured from scratch, without any existing moulds. These included decorative, embossed border tiles, two sizes of panel frame profiles, skirting borders, 6 x 4 inch and 6 x 3 inch tiles in plain and round edge, and external curved skirting profiles. Fitting new tiles within existing ornately decorated tiles was an intricate job and required the reproduction tiles to be accurate in both size and thickness.

Unable to take moulds from the original tiles, the team at Craven Dunnill Jackfield expertly re-modelled all the tile profiles, faithfully copying the remaining originals. The replacement tiles were then manufactured in biscuit before being hand-dipped in specially formulated, metal oxide glazes: green and brown. The glaze recipe used was similar to that of the original tiles.

Adrian Blundell, Production Director at Craven Dunnill Jackfield led the project, working closely with the tile contractor to ensure the project was successfully completed. Blundell attended the East Ham College of Technology back in 1984, taking a foundation art course in art and design, and clearly remembers the ornately decorated, ceramic tiled pillars which take centre stage in the main vestibule.

He comments: “When you are dealing with a historic site, you never know what issues are going to arise. Our prime concern with this project was achieving the exact match with the remaining original tiles, which had aged over time. The team at Jackfield has a wealth of knowledge and expertise and previous work on restoration projects at the Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man and Baron Court Underground was invaluable.”

The multi million pound refurbishment of the building was completed late 2014.

For further information visit www.cravendunnill-jackfield.co.uk