Please join us for a special community celebration for the saving of the spire of St Andrew's Church, Thornhill Square!
A short service at 5pm outside at the base of the Tower will be followed by refreshments in the church.
Please RSVP to admin@standrewsthornhillsquare.org.uk if you are able to join us.
The scaffolding is now completed and works are about to commence to restore the church’s Spire.
Here are some fun facts about that scaffolding!
At 44 metres high, the scaffolding stands nearly as tall as Nelson's Column (51.5 m) and taller than 10 stacked London double-decker buses.
Climbing from the ground to the top working lift involves roughly 200 to 220 steps, which is about two-thirds of the climb up the Monument to the Great Fire of London.
The structure uses approx. 7,000 metres of steel tube, which if laid end-to-end, would reach across London from Thornhill Square to the Olympic stadium or Battersea Power Station.
The total steel weight is roughly 25 to 35 tonnes, equivalent to the weight of 2 to 3 fully loaded London buses.
Over 4,000 individual fittings and couplers were manually positioned and hand-tightened at height.
The 800 to 1,200 timber boards laid end-to-end would stretch over 3.5 to 4.5 kilometres, enough to circle Thornhill Square Gardens more than 8 times.
The total boarded deck area equals roughly 400 to 500 square metres, matching the footprint of two full-sized tennis courts.
Wrapped in protective sheeting, the structure acts like a 44-metre vertical sail engineered to withstand gale-force winds exceeding 70 to 80 mph.
Almost all high-level components were elevated by hand or rope gin-wheels rather than large tower cranes.
Holding a blessing service at the 40+ metre upper lift places the congregation higher than the interior roof of Westminster Abbey's nave.
The top platform creates the highest temporary vantage point and ceremonial deck across the entire Barnsbury and Thornhill conservation area.
At 44 metres up, wind speeds are significantly higher and temperatures are typically 2 to 3 degrees Celsius colder than at street level.
