Stonework, roofing and glazing:

Lerwick Town Hall

Shetland · 2017

Our role: Main contractor
Client: Shetland Islands Council
Architect: Groves-Raines Architects
Value: £1m to £2m
Programme: October 2016 to November 2017
Scope: Stone window and tracery repairs, repointing, wall core grouting, slating and leadwork, tower roof, timber window repairs, protective glazing, lime plaster linings

Lerwick Town Hall is the civic centre of Shetland, a Category A listed building of 1883 with a prominent tower, crow-stepped gables and a series of stained glass windows. Shetland Islands Council appointed us as main contractor to carry out conservation works to the fabric under the direction of Groves-Raines Architects. The contract combined stone repair, roofing, joinery and a new protective glazing system, all carried out to a listed building consent. In 2026 we returned to carry out a thermographic drone survey and masonry investigation of the elevations for Shetland Islands Council, to trace water ingress and identify voids within the wall core ahead of trial repairs in lime mortar.

Lerwick Town Hall: thermographic survey of the elevations, August 2026

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 1

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 2

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 3

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 4

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 5

Lerwick Town Hall, Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland — photograph 6

The challenge

Weather and age had taken their toll on the window surrounds and tracery, the skews and copes, and the tower roof. The stained glass needed to be taken out for conservation and then given a new protective system, so the masonry around each opening had to be cut and rebuilt to receive it. Behind the face, the rubble wall cores had to be inspected for voids. The interior needed dust protection and screening, and the works ran through the Shetland winter.

Our solution

A full scaffold and wrap allowed the whole building to be worked on from one controlled platform. Vegetation was removed and the stone descaled before each window was surveyed and templated on site. New dressed indents for cills, rybats, arch stones and tracery were cut in our workshop and built in, with defective stones cut out in sequence from the top down and bedded in lime mortar. Rubble wall cores were inspected and photographed, and voids were filled by lime grouting. Ashlar, squared rubble, copes and skews were raked out and repointed by hand in a lime mortar. On the roofs, defective slates were stripped and replaced with new or sound salvaged slate, and the tower roof coverings were replaced, with new lead soakers, gutters and flashings. Timber sash windows were overhauled, with linseed oil putty and new sash cords. The stained glass was conserved by specialist consultants, and we built in a new external glazing system with lead flashings to the frames.