Chelsea Theatre, London

We recently completed the refurbishment of Chelsea Theatre in Worlds End Place, Chelsea, London. Due to the theatre being under the jurisdiction of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council there were many rules and regulations that we had to adhere to and so the planning behind this job was crucial. For example, the job had restrictions such as, noisy works could only be carried out between the hours of 09:00-12:30 and 14:00-17:30 Monday to Friday, therefore it was paramount that we adhered to this in order for the project to run smoothly. Murray & Willis can happily say that with the excellent communication and management skills from all operatives involved we never had any trouble with the council and the entire job ran smoothly from deliveries to noisy works.

Under a standard JCT contract whereby the M&E consultant, Architects and SLAV designers (theatre lighting designers) were all appointed by the client, Murray & Willis commenced in the complete strip out and refurbishment of Chelsea Theatre. Due to the complexity of the project the client agreed to close the building for the entirety of the job, giving us full access to hit the project in all areas. We began by completing a full strip out of the building before any refurbishment work took place.

Once the strip out had been completed, we began to work our way through the building refurbishing everything to the spec provided by the architect. Works included fitting a new bespoke staircase, a ‘SENSO’ polished concrete floor, sprung ballet floors, chevron millboard decking, a theatre stage floor, bespoke structural ceiling work with exposed containment, curtain walling, Crittall glazed screen partitions, armour coat spray concrete finishes to the bar and lift shaft, a bottle cage suspended above the bar, walk on roof lights, a DDA lift and an automated fire curtain with a PIR sensor. As well as this, we supplied and installed bespoke joinery items such as; a bar, kitchen counters, tables, vanity units and cubicles. Working closely with our M&E subcontractor we also installed heating and a HVAC system to the whole building. Once all works were completed, we then used our own in-house decorators to add the finishing touches to the project.

Due to the extensive work that had to be completed on the roof, working at height was a major risk that we flagged in the build up to this project. However, working with our own in-house health and safety manager we were able to mitigate the risk by using edge protection whilst working on the roof. Not only this but throughout the whole project our health and safety manager made regular visits to ensure that everyone was working in a safe environment.