The Foundry Rooms

The Foundry Rooms conserves one of the last standing cementation furnaces in the country and knits a new visitor building alongside it. The furnace cone was recorded, taken down course by course where it had become unstable, and rebuilt using lime mortars matched to the original.

A steel-and-glass insertion sits deliberately clear of the historic masonry, carried on its own frame so the old walls take no new load. Underfloor services were routed through a raised timber deck to avoid disturbing the archaeology below.

The result keeps the raw, sooted character of the works while making it warm, lit and open to the public.