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A modern lift for a historic organisation
Very few of our customers will have a history dating back to the medieval period. However, one does and that’s the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. In medieval times, watermen and lightermen formed groups to support and maintain their rights as river workers. The Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, our customer, was founded in 1514 and have been present in their existing building, located in St Mary-at-Hill, London EC3, since 1780.
Today, the Company of Watermen and Lightermen (CWL) operates as a Guild and is still actively involved with the life of the River and those who work on it. Apart from its work as a supportive Guild, CWL offers Watermen’s Hall as a venue for a range of hospitality including conferences, wedding receptions and private silver service luncheons.
The five-storey building and hall had an ageing hydraulic lift installed that had become unreliable. Jackson were approached and asked to provide a replacement solution that would provide the reliability CWL wanted and the life expectancy needed, to justify the cost investment of a lift replacement.
After visiting the site and discussing options with CWL, our installation team, operating from our Charlton offices, proposed that we replace the entire hydraulic lift and its equipment with a new MRL lift. As a listed heritage building, we took great care to ensure any building works that were needed were approved, prior to commencement of the project. Fortunately, the building had an existing tank room so there was no need to install the MRL controller in the landing door frame architrave, hence removing the need for building works.
Prior to securing the project for the new MRL lift, Jackson submitted a detailed tender along with accompanying time frames and a proposal for the lift car finishes, which needed to be in keeping with the style of this heritage building.
The installation was completed to programme, the lift was tested and put into service with thanks from CWL, who were very complementary about the care and attention to detail our installation took throughout the entire project.