Front wall and railings

All things are changing in our building site.

All things will be transformed and become new.

This also applies to the front wall and the railings.

The old railings are at the moment being removed and new ones are ordered.

A new wall is due to be built soon, to replace the old one.

On the Kingsbury side

A lot of works are at the moment being done outside and around the main Church.

Today Romanian employees were cementing the little balcony, which is just outside the site door on the Kingsbury side of the Church.

Every little element plays its role and has its special significance, as we are rapidly approaching the Official Opening Day.

Today’s photo-reportage

Mik the foreman and Adrian in front of the Dome:

The main gallery floor level has now been marbled:

Marble tiles are nicely placed on the floor of the main Church:

The first electrical control panel has now been fixed in the Sanctuary area:

Some “toys for the boys” in the car park area:

Looking out and arranging the next steps, by Trevor the Project Manager and his work aides:

Good co-operation amongst our staff and their hard work has produced some real miracles in our sacred project.

Site hoarding off

In July 2009 the site hoarding was raised up around our building site for obvious reasons of health and safety.

This has now been taken away, from various sides of our site, as it had served its purpose well.

The clearing of the parking area, in front of the Vicarage, has now started. The photos of this post show the parking area as it looks at the moment from the entrance of the Vicarage.

Today’s videos

Very busy today at our building site. Many lorries brought a lot of materials.

Workers were found in all sides of the building.

These videos show some of the work being done in the front area, as well as on the Kingsbury side of the building.

The brick fence continues

The brick layers are here today progressing the brick fence on the Harrow side of our new Church.

The Irish Paddy and the Romanian Vasile, accompanied by the foreman Mic are doing a good job there.

They estimate to complete the building of the fence in the next few days.

Tomorrow our congregation will have the chance to enter the new Church and have a look at the interior, after the morning Service, which will be celebrated at our temporary Church, and will be presided over by His Eminence Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kition (Larnaka - Cyprus).

The brick fence on the side

On the Harrow side of our new Church a brick fence is nicely being built.

The brick layers are working there every day the last few days.

It really looks impressive and it is certainly a nice part of the new building site.

We are sure that our next door neighbours will be very pleased with that fence as well.

Floor cement screeding & brick fence

Saturday today, but our dedicated building team is on site working hard.

A group of workers are making the floor cement screeding.

This screed will need about two weeks to dry before the marble floor is placed on the top of it.

Romanian and Irish brick layers are working outside the Church, on its Harrow side, making a good brick fence.

They are lovely as always, as this short video shows.

Snow and works

Our area is still full of lovely and soft snow.

All around the new Church a white blanket has been laid for... good!

The predictions say that tonight there is going to be another snowfall which is definitely going to lead us to... beautiful white Christmas.

This is the talk, if not the dream, every year among all people in North Europe, isn’t it?

In the meantime, although the weather conditions are not good for working outdoors, various materials are being delivered on our building site.

They are taken and stored properly, ready to fixed when the weather permits again.

Inside though a completely different story.

Certain workers (electricians, carpenters and others) are continuing their work.

Preparations were made today for the concreting of the Sanctuary.

Covered with snow

The building site, as all areas around the new Church, was covered today with a lot of snow.

This is certainly a special characteristic of winter and Christmas.

It is nice as long as we are staying indoors and we go out only for a snow fight and to make a snowman.

But it is obviously very dangerous for driving as well as for any kind of outdoor works.

This is why no workers attended to our new Church today.

Walking around the... heavens

The whole of the top of our new place of worship, with the surrounding area can be seen on this video, taken this afternoon when we walked around the dome of the Church.

A quick view of the interior was also included on the video.

Banners

Two banners are now hung from the roof of our new Church.

One on the facade, inviting 1000 Benefactors to contribute £1000 each, in order to pay for the construction of our new place of worship.

The other on the side, informing all passers by of the financial level of the Church Building Fund.

"Atlas" scaffolding

Scaffolding is a necessary element in all building sites.

Inside and outside the new buildings scaffolding is needed in order to facilitate the various works.

In our case the present scaffolding company, called ATLAS, named after an ancient Greek “God”, assists greatly the bricklayers who built the bricks around the new Church.

Site plan

IBEX, the company that is in charge of the 2nd phase of our building project, has produced a "site plan", which is placed on the notice board at the entrance of our building site.

Hard hat site

At the entrance of our building site the signs indicate that this is a “hard hat site”.

Therefore all people entering the site should wear a hard hat.

This obviously applies first of all to our dedicated engineers and workers.

It is of course a matter of health and safety and thus we should all observe this rule.

The hard hat concept comes from Bullard, a hundred-year-old, family-owned manufacturer of personal protective equipment. A hundred years ago, the hard hat didn’t exist. And fifty years ago, head protection wasn’t widely required for workers. But, thanks to advances in safety, the hard hat has evolved over the decades.

The Bullard Company was established in San Francisco in 1898. In 1915 they began work on a helmet that could protect miners from falling objects.

In 1938, Bullard designed and manufactured the first aluminium hard hat, which was considered very durable and reasonably lightweight for the time.

Bullard’s distinctive three-rib, heat resistant fibreglass hard hat was developed in the 1940’s. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, thermoplastics replaced fibreglass because the newer material was less costly and better suited for the applications. Bullard was one of the first manufacturers to inject thermoplastic into a mould to produce a hard hat.

In 1982, the standard hard hat changed again. Later on Bullard redesigned the 3000R and introduced the C30, which has become known as today’s standard yellow hard hat.