This must go down as one of the more unusual projects that Coventry Scaffolding has undertaken in our long history. Not so much because of the complexity of the work (we have worked in the Palace of Westminster for most of our 50 year history) but because of the fact that in the space of 7 months, this structure was erected and dismantled not once but three times.
The originally telephone enquiry was received on the morning of Thursday 29th January 1998 when the previous night, a 7 lb piece of oak had fallen from the ceiling narrowly missing the Prime Minister’s seat. We were requested to put labour on emergency standby to erect a birdcage scaffold giving access to the Main Chamber ceiling to allow emergency repairs to take place. The scaffold had to be fully erected, commencing late on Friday afternoon (30th Jan) after the House rose at 2.58 pm and completely dismantled and removed from site by Sunday night (1st Feb), to allow normal business to continue in the House on Monday morning.
