Merchant Taylor School, Northwood

One of Britain's oldest and best known independent schools was undergoing a major refurbishment to their Grand Hall following a decision to increase the seating capacity and provide audio visual and presentation capabilities along with renewed drapery throughout. The whole concrete structure of the stage was to be moved back several metres and would then require a new installation of Halls Stage electrically controlled track wired in to a dmx control system. Abacus Stagetech was initially contacted with a view to obtaining suitable curtain materials, bullion fringes and nominate suppliers capable of reproducing the magnificent curtains and pelmetry and also to advise on restoring the ancient School Crest, so lovingly hand stitched , appliqued, embroidered and bound almost 80 years ago. After many months of research to find just the right company to sympathetically restore the original, a decision was taken to award the job to The Textile Restoration Company who painstakingly cleaned, repaired and applied a protective gauze to ensure the delicate hand woven silks would not deteriorate further. Suitable curtain materials were sampled and coloured to specification before J D McDougall were commissioned to carry out the manufacture. Weymms Houles were commissioned to manufacture the matching coloured flat braids and large bullion fringes required. Abacus Stagetech carried out the project management and installation of the whole job. This was manufacturing and installation on a grand scale and the finished result looks every bit as impressive as was that first installation over half a century ago.

For more information on Merchant Taylor School, Northwood talk to Abacus StageTech