Behind the scenes of Preston's Harris Museum revamp

Lancashire Post

See how the ambitious project is going and find out what to expect when the landmark attraction reopens in 2024.

Transcript

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00:33 - I'm Michael Conlon, I'm the Executive Chairman

00:35 of Conlon Construction.

00:37 - You've been about a year on site here now

00:39 at the Harris, haven't you?

00:40 - Yes. - How are things going?

00:41 - Fine, the usual things you find with a listed building,

00:44 but nothing too onerous.

00:46 And it's great to be working on such a lovely building.

00:50 Means lots to people at Preston, we're a Preston company.

00:54 - What has been your most significant challenge

00:56 over these past 12 months?

00:57 - Nothing major, it's just,

01:00 you find things that you're not expecting,

01:02 because it is an old building, it's coming up 125 years.

01:07 And as you get into a heritage building,

01:09 you do find things which are challenges,

01:11 which nothing we've not been able to overcome.

01:13 We've got a lot of expertise on this site.

01:16 We particularly are known for our expertise

01:18 in heritage buildings,

01:19 but that also goes down through our supply chain,

01:21 whether it's the stone carving, the lead work,

01:23 or the specialist joinery work that we're doing.

01:26 So we'll always be able to find a solution.

01:29 - What's been the most surprising thing you've found?

01:31 What's raised an eyebrow for you and your team?

01:34 - We found a few bits and pieces,

01:36 but just odds and sods.

01:38 There were some large prints of 1930s cinema stills,

01:43 which I don't think anybody knew were in there,

01:46 just in a cupboard.

01:47 And that might be something that we could get to,

01:49 if there's a Preston Cinema Society,

01:51 they might want some of those images.

01:53 But nothing untoward, it's just the usual thing.

01:57 The building had been empty before we arrived,

01:59 but you just find odd bits in rooms

02:01 that probably haven't been open for a long time.

02:03 But that's it.

02:04 - You've very kindly given me a sneak peek

02:06 before we had this chat on one of your contractors

02:10 in there was saying that only two window sills

02:12 out of more than 100.

02:14 - 20 that were rotted,

02:15 because they've used good timber when they build the place.

02:18 But even stripping the windows,

02:22 a lot of them have been painted shut for many, many years,

02:25 and probably about 12 coats of paint on them.

02:26 So that took a bit of a stripping off.

02:28 But all of the iron monger is in perfect condition.

02:30 They've used good brass iron monger

02:32 when they built the place.

02:33 And as David said earlier,

02:35 there was only two of the sills in the whole building

02:37 that we found to have rot in them.

02:39 So that's not a big job.

02:41 And it's good to see that that workmanship

02:42 has endured the rigours of the climate of Preston

02:46 for all this length of time.

02:48 - Plenty of rigours.

02:49 - Yes, indeed.

02:50 - In terms of preserving the fabric of the building,

02:53 obviously you've had to go to great lengths

02:54 to protect things like the mosaic floor,

02:56 haven't you, to make sure that nothing's damaged

02:58 during the works?

02:59 - That was our first priority when we got on site,

03:00 was the protection works.

03:03 Because a lot of the architecture itself is precious.

03:08 So there's huge columns in there.

03:12 Okay, they can take a bit of a bang

03:14 with a scaffold tube,

03:15 but we don't want to put a chip in something

03:17 that's polished marble.

03:18 So we've covered all that with plywood.

03:20 And like you mentioned yourself,

03:21 there's a mosaic floor in the rotunda.

03:24 And we couldn't have things getting scraped

03:26 off the top of that, so that's all been decked.

03:28 And there's also special parts of the building,

03:30 like for example, the war memorial.

03:32 And so many people from Preston and around the area

03:35 will have relatives that died in the two great wars.

03:40 And their names are carved in those war memorials,

03:45 so they had to be protected.

03:46 And we even had a lady only a couple of weeks back,

03:49 and she was over on holiday from New Zealand.

03:51 And she came specifically to the museum

03:53 to see her great-grandfather's name,

03:56 I think it was, carved into the wall there.

03:59 And obviously it's all protected now.

04:01 We couldn't let her in to see it,

04:03 but we've got her details.

04:04 And when all the protection works comes off,

04:06 we're going to take a photograph

04:07 and make sure the lady gets to see an image

04:10 of her relative's name on that war memorial.

04:14 - It is going to look relatively different,

04:16 isn't it, inside when it's all completed?

04:19 - It will.

04:20 That's the whole aim from the city council.

04:23 They've got all this money to spend on the building,

04:25 to update it, make it more accessible,

04:29 and maybe make it more attractive

04:31 to younger people in particular.

04:33 But they've also had the, I think,

04:37 the vision to move certain of the offices

04:40 down into basement areas, which were previously storage.

04:43 Those office areas can now be turned into wall space

04:47 in the upper floors, hanging the artworks,

04:49 which otherwise might have been sat in the basement,

04:52 and only coming out once in a while.

04:54 So it's a good use of the space

04:55 and the walls in particular.

04:57 - So more display space?

04:58 - Yeah, absolutely.

04:59 And there's some care going into the roof lights as well,

05:03 because it's very much a case of what type of glass you use,

05:08 and also whether or not it needs films on it

05:10 to reflect sunlight.

05:11 Because if you're hanging, for example,

05:14 certain works of art, watercolors,

05:16 they would be damaged by direct sunlight and ultraviolet.

05:20 So things like that have to be taken into account

05:22 in the design.

05:23 - And an expanded wedding space, I believe, as well.

05:26 The happy couples looking for the perfect picture backdrop.

05:29 I've got something to look forward to, haven't I?

05:31 - Funnily enough, I have the honor that my wife and I

05:34 were the last people to get married in here

05:35 before it got closed down.

05:37 The space that was used for our wedding

05:39 is now going to be particularly for the arts.

05:41 And on the lower floor now, on the first floor,

05:45 we've opened up one of the galleries

05:48 to be a greater, more lengthy and voluminous space

05:53 for weddings, so you could get a lot more people in there.

05:57 Obviously, we were getting married during lockdown,

05:59 so there weren't that many guests,

06:00 but you could get 100 or so in there easily, maybe more.

06:04 And also, at this end, they've got access after the wedding

06:08 to go out onto the balcony and have wedding photographs taken

06:13 with the bride and groom in amongst the columns

06:15 on the frontage overlooking the flag mark here.

06:17 And it'd be lovely.

06:18 It's been well thought out.

06:20 - About how long would you say is left of your job,

06:23 would you estimate?

06:24 - With a few months, it'll be, we'll be,

06:29 well, we're aiming to be off May, June next year,

06:32 but then obviously there's fit art contractors

06:34 working alongside us.

06:36 And so, yeah.

06:36 - Turn it back into a museum.

06:37 - Somewhere next year, yes.

06:39 - And just finally, for people who are so looking forward

06:41 to getting back inside this place,

06:43 what's your message to them?

06:44 How can you whet their appetite?

06:46 - It'll be fantastic.

06:47 I mean, those of us that love the museum

06:49 and have been going in here for years,

06:51 it's gonna have a refresh.

06:53 So there'll be new things for us to see.

06:55 And it'll look a bit different, a lot different, actually,

06:57 to how it's been in the past.

06:59 But to people who've never ventured in before,

07:01 it's a great space.

07:02 And there'll be more entrances,

07:04 'cause apparently a criticism was

07:05 that it was difficult to gain entry,

07:07 'cause there was only one entrance there

07:09 and one entrance there.

07:10 But there are other entrances on each side of the building.

07:12 They're being opened up now

07:13 to make the building more inviting.

07:15 And I'd say, give it a whirl.

07:17 I'm bringing kids.

07:18 - Michael, thank you very much indeed.

07:20 - Thank you.

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