CED Stone Inspiring Beautiful Landscapes

London Wall

Posted: 22 Feb, 2021

Materials:

1500m2 of 63mm thick paving, 90 Steps, risers, and also a small number of setts with stainless steel insert visibility strips, 70 tonnes of black basalt will make up the main water feature areas.
30 tonnes of black basalt will make up the Clamber terrace area, We are also supplying various basalt steps and paving and Icelandic pebbles to the site.

Details:

London Wall is situated in the heart of the City of London, the site is set amongst parts of the original London Wall and St Alphage Church built in Roman times.

Our initial discussions for this project started early back in 2011 with Spacehub. Further discussions took place during 2013 with both Spacehub and Make architects with regards to material specification and budget pricing.

The project went to official tender in mid-2015 with Frosts Landscape Construction being awarded the contract in early 2016 with the order for the natural stone being awarded to CED not long after.

There were different areas for this project which all had their own requirements and some needed development from their original form at tender stage.

1) Yorkstone paving area & Salters Gate

The original specification for this area was Scoutmoor Yorkstone. Ced priced for an alternative Yorkstone. To ensure that all parties were happy with our alternative, a full-size sample panel was supplied as a benchmark for the order, full technical details with updated test results were supplied for all those involved to view and comment. After lots of discussions, the order was placed. The Yorkstone we supplied was selected for its blue/grey colour with only 5% buff colouration. Coal content quantity was also very important, the client did not like the heavily coaled paving so a small selection process took place at the quarry to avoid any heavily marked pieces from being supplied.

1500m2 of 63mm thick paving
90 Steps, risers, and also a small number of setts with stainless steel insert visibility strips to the Priory and Salters garden areas.

2) Black Basalt Water Feature

This was an immense project with lots of detail and CAD drawing work, very tight tolerances and finishes to the stone not previously used for any other project.

A scaled-down mockup was produced and air freighted over at the start, this was then viewed at Frosts premises along with Make Architects, Spacehub and Brookefield Multiplex. The mockup contained a variety of finishes and shapes to enable the final design to be chosen for the main order.

One big challenge for us was designing and producing an anti pedestrian finish to the top of paving which was going to be used along the edges of the water feature. The edges of the water feature were at ground level and had the potential for pedestrians to walk into the lowered pool section.

After lots of airfreighted samples, it was time for a visit to the Chinese factory.

Our Commercial Director, Calum Fraser, accompanied 2 Frosts employees to our factory for a quality inspection and to also view additional samples worked on for the anti-pedestrian finish. After lots of discussion the factory finally managed to achieve the finish we were looking for.

70 tonnes of black basalt will make up the main water feature.

Clamber Terrace

This area, situated next to the 14th Century remains of St Alphage church tower, is to mimic the quality and finishes supplied to the water feature. It is a staged seating area on different levels consisting of large steps and risers. The specially designed split top finish which is used on the water feature is also used in certain areas of the Clamber Terrace to act as a deterrent for pedestrians.

30 tonnes of black basalt will make up the Clamber terrace area.

We are also supplying various basalt steps and paving for various areas to the rest of the site as well as black Icelandic pebbles.

Designer: Make Architects

Designer: Spacehub

Frosts Landscape Construction

Contractor: Frosts Landscape Construction

Creating inspirational landscapes since 1959With a horticultural heritage of over 60 years, we offer high quality soft and hard landscaping services throughout the UK