The Porches-Silver Jubilee/21st Anniversary Project - Trust Annual Report 1979
The Porches at 35 and 37 Southgate Street
The restoration of the four Chernocke Place porches has proceeded apace, although the causal observer might be forgiven for thinking otherwise! The start itself was delayed for six months (and increased in cost by £600) as a result of earlier work which ran over time on two of the houses. Since then the scaffolding seems to have gone up and down in a bewildering sequence of events.
Actually the Trust's scaffolding was erected as soon as the previous lot came down, remaining for little more than five weeks, by when the new concrete in the porch construction was sufficiently cured to stand safely on its own. Almost immediately the same two houses as before acquired a second skin of scaffold as a result of an unexpected need for major roof repairs. Starting after this, but completed sooner, the only remaining unrestored house frontage was carefully cleaned and redecorated in a separate contract for the owner complete, of course, with yet another cloak of poles and boards.
It has done no harm for the porches to wait a while for the final stage of painting, to allow the structure to dry out. Nevertheless, a special new paint recommended by the Department of Environment was used, which has the property of allowing continued evaporation whilst excluding water penetration. We shall watch its performance with keen interest as this characteristic would have enormous advantages in other restoration work.
The builders, F.G. Finch & Son Ltd., are to be complimented on a job well done, to which they contributed most of the expertise of erection when there was no precedent to follow. Never before, so far as we know, has a builder been asked to erect classical porches from a kit of precast concrete parts ! The half ton columns were perilously dangled onto their bases with many fingers secretly crossed, and the heavy cornice sections manhandled to fit together with many other fingers at risk of crushing.
We believe the result is of immeasurable benefit to the architectural quality of Chernocke Place and to Southgate Street as a whole, and we would like to record our thanks to those whose contributions made it possible:
The Department of the Environment.
The Hampshire County Council.
The Winchester City Council.
The Sun Alliance Insurance Group (No's. 37 and 39). The Webb family (No. 35).
The members of the Winchester Preservation Trust.