Buckingham Palace

Case study

In 1995 Southwark Metals asked by a company to price the lead on Buckingham Palace swimming pool roof. It was a huge accomplishment and privilege to work for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. As our managing director, Tom Pratt, recalls “I thought I would take this job myself, to drive through the front gates of Buckingham Palace was a great honour, as it has been for other jobs. For example the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London, the Guards Chapel, the demolition of Terminal Two at Heathrow and most major major demolition jobs that have happened in this great city of ours”. Tom also recalls an amusing anecdote from the Buckingham Palace job: “The company that we were doing the work for had a retired gentleman working for them, delivering gloves and brooms etc. He was instructed to make a delivery in front of us into Buckingham Palace. On his arrival he was asked by a police officer whether he had a criminal record, he then replied ‘yes, a Des O’Connor record from 1964’. The police asked him to leave immediately”.