The Banqueting House, Whitehall lies at the heart of the tourist trail with Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey a short walk away. It was designed by Inigo Jones in 1619-22 and contains the only surviving in situ ceiling painting series by Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
When planning the works, security and noise reduction from the busy Whitehall thoroughfare were the major concerns. The design replaced the blast net curtains as well as providing a significant level of noise insulation.
Two years ago, testing was carried out for what turned out to be the largest ever single casement to be blast tested in the UK; due to the Main Hall window openings being 3.6m high and 2.0m wide. The results were a success and planning for the installation began.
Installing the units was a challenge as half the openings were 10m above the main floor. A careful method of installation was devised involving a columnar scaffolding design complete with lifting apparatus to each opening. In all, 39 units were installed.
“The windows look great, I bet you never thought you would hear me say that!” commented the architect.
The secondary glazing also provides essential UV filtering to the Thomson Specification approved by the National Gallery, V&A and others.