Jackfield recreates tiled floor at Kew Gardens

Craven Dunnill Jackfield has recreated the original Victorian floor of the Marianne North Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

The Marianne North Gallery has now officially reopened following the two-year, GBP3.7m renovation and conservation project encompassing both the fabric of the building and its painting collection.

Central to the project was the geometric tiled floor, complete with an intricate border, which is an authentic replica of the original Victorian floor, recreated by Craven Dunnill Jackfield.

The gallery was designed by architectural historian James Ferguson and purpose built to house the work of botanical artist Marianne North, who donated her collection of plant paintings to RGB (Kew) in 1882.

Craven Dunnill Jackfield specialises in designing and making geometric and encaustic tiled floors.

When first approached by Bob Howard at Wilson and Wylie Contracts, there was little more than an old photograph plus one or two original tiles to suggest how the floor originally looked when it was first laid.

Craven Dunnill Jackfield worked closely with architect Donald Insall Associates, main contractor Concentra and flooring contractor Wilson and Wylie.

The Marianne North Gallery is approximately 14.5m in length by 6.5m in width.

Each square metre is made up of 200 individual tiles: octagons, hexagons, pentagons, squares, triangles, parallelograms and oblong slips.

Precision in manufacture and then in laying the floor was very important in order to ensure the design would fit and sit centrally in the room.

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