Context

CED Stone Group supplied Portuguese granite seating, kerbs, steps and tactile paving for the transformation of external spaces around St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle.

Challenge

As part of a complete revamp to the Cathedral the external space around the building, needed to contrast seamlessly with the existing structure and the ongoing internal improvements. The client and architect settled on a predominantly mid-grey stone with interesting variable characteristics and an almost medieval style of bench design to fit in geometrically with the overall characteristics of the Cathedral.

Project detail

CED Stone Group was chosen to supply the stone. This was a technically challenging bench design and CED was tasked with producing the material item drawings for the factory production from the architect's drawings. The order was received just as the first pandemic lock-down happened in March 2020. This meant that complicated information sharing had to be communicated accurately and shared from CED's various remote locations to ensure all details were assimilated correctly.

The main supply was for large bench units cascading across five different terrace levels. The flame-textured units included for both straight and radius sections as well as as corner pieces. These bench sections weighed up to 1.5 tonnes each and were supplied in Ash Grey Portuguese granite. This is a predominantly mid-grey coloured stone with good technical strength characteristics and a good choice for this type of large seating unit. Various details such as rounded edges, recesses, grooves, tapers and fixing holes had to be incorporated in to the production.

CED also supplied kerbs, steps with inserts, splayed steps and tactile paving units.

Outcome

The end result is quite fits in well with the overall St Nicholas Cathedral Common Ground and Sacred Space Development.