Broad Gate in Leeds has been a dominant landmark since its construction in 1934. This impressive neo-baroque style building with red brick & Portland Stone façade was designed by Sir Reginald Bloomfield and for many years was Leeds’ first department store, Lewis’s.

Bloomfield’s original designs were never actually completed though; not until recently when a team that included architects Fairhurst Design Group, main contractor Wates Construction and Marlborough, who completed the £3,000,000 masonry package, carried out a complete refurbishment & extension of the building.

Marlborough was faced with innumerable challenges beginning with the pivotal task of surveying the existing contours and façade. With no margin for error Marlborough used in-house engineering expertise and state of the art technology in the form of a GPS Total Station to accurately map the building topography. This enabled our supply chain design company to detail and schedule over 5500 bespoke pieces of new Portland stone.

A wide range of stone formats were required for the project from Ashlar walling units and copings to ornate balustrades and cornices. The need for a high quality supply chain was imperative so Marlborough chose to work with Albion Stone. Many stones needed to be sourced directly from the quarry face and the large cornices, weighing 1400kg each, were painstakingly mechanically and manually carved to meet the profile of the existing stones.

On the tight city centre site surrounded by busy pedestrian areas Marlborough arranged ‘just in time’ and out of hours deliveries of materials, carrying out careful inventorying, distribution & storage of stone units that were manufactured to fit in only one unique place on the building.

Marlborough used a complex mono-rail system for transferring the large format stones to their positions on the façade. The mono-rail is a traditional method but was updated to meet stringent scaffold and safety regulations. Once in place the large format stone cornices were restrained using modern masonry construction techniques incorporating masonry restraint angles and brackets.

Other than stonework, the masonry package also included over 800m2 of hand-made facing bricks, internal blockwork & secondary support system and offered Marlborough an exciting challenge. The result of the Broad Gate project has been a stunning recreation of part of Leeds’ history married to the provision of a contemporary development for the city.

"Marlborough's professional approach started at the early pricing stage and carried on through to the final inspection of their completed works. Their approach to Health & Safety was exemplary. A very positive outcome was achieved for this project and we look forward to the opportunity to work with Marlborough again."
Mike Gorman, Construction Manager, Wates Construction Ltd