Restoring the Palm Houses
Watch our July 2023 update
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Protective cladding now shelters our iconic Palm House buildings, but behind-the-scenes, progress is being made on the restoration of these magnificent buildings: glass is being replaced, stonework restored and rusting ironwork brought back to life.
The Edinburgh Biomes project will protect global plant science and conservation through the restoration of the Palm Houses, ensuring the future of these A-listed historic structures and the precious plants that they house.
Watch the short film below to learn more about the vision, complexities and challenges of this crucial project.
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The restoration of the Palm Houses is an ambitious but truly vital undertaking and every gift we receive will be invaluable in enabling us to accomplish this project.
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Restoring the Palm Houses
| Time | Description |
| [Colin Reid, Senior Project Manger, Balfour Beatty] We started on site in September, 2022. The plants had all been removed by the hort team. We then put a protection layer down onto the grounds. We're erecting the scaffold, that gives us access to the roof and all the iron work. | |
| So all the glass is getting replaced. The paint will be removed from all the iron work on site and then all the iron work gets repainted. We'll be inspecting the iron work for any defects, any damage, any corrosion, repairing it, replacing it whilst always maintaining as much of the original structure as possible. At the same time, we'll be doing structural repairs or stonework repairs to the existing stone. | |
| Once the glass has been installed, the scaffolds will come down and that'll release the works after they done down at ground level. But the trades that we have working on this site include the scaffolders. We have iron workers, we have glaziers, we have stone masons. There's some minor joiner work. There's lead work. |