Westminster Abbey, Cosmati Pavement

In 2009 we were involved in the conservation and repair of the Cosmati Pavement, Westminster Abbey, a 13th century mosaic made from semi-precious stone and coloured glass tesserae.

We joined the project during the final 6 months of what was essentially a 2 year conservation effort to repair and preserve this incredibly significant piece of cultural heritage.

Our work involved the repair and renewal and pavement tesserae, made of both red and green porphyry and Lias. We began by making detailed templates of the floor and then cut and shaped stones to match these templates. Stones were then bedded in lime mortar.

Ca. 2500 tesserae were cut, which is actually a small percentage of the total number of stones used in this composition. These stones were used to fill in missing sections of the design which previously has been filled with cement mortar.

Click here to have a look a this link for films and photos of the Cosmati Pavement, featuring our Foreman, John Crump: