Restoration Programme
It was initially feared that it could cost £60m to restore the castle, though the final cost was £36.5m. A trust for donations towards the cost of fire restoration was announced 16 February 1993 by Coutts & Co (with NatWest).
On 29 April 1993, it was announced that up to 70% of the cost of restoration was to be met by charging the public £3 for entry to the Castle precincts, and £8 for admission to Buckingham Palace for the next five years. Her Majesty The Queen was to personally contribute £2m.
On 7 June 1994, the details of the £40m restoration programme were announced. The architectural firm Sidell Gibson Partnership were appointed to produce the final designs.
Over half the damaged and destroyed rooms, including the State and Octagon dining rooms were to be restored as original. There were to be new designs for the St George's Hall ceiling (with steel reinforcing beams in the roof) and East Screen, also The Queen's Private Chapel, Stuart and Holbein Room. However, only The Queen's Private Chapel and several modern rooms were to be restored in a modern style.
Designs were to be submitted to a Restoration Committee, whose chairman was The Duke of Edinburgh, and Deputy Chairman The Prince of Wales. Members included the Earl of Airlie (Lord Chamberlain), Sir Hayden Phillips (Permanent Secretary of the Department of National Heritage), The Lord St John of Fawsley (Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission), Sir Jocelyn Stevens (Chairman of English Heritage), Frank Duffy (President of the Royal Institute of British Architects), and three senior palace officials.
New designs for St George's Hall (the principal reception room in the palace), and The Queen's Private Chapel, were approved by The Queen on 24 January 1995.
The fire, catastrophic though it was, has presented the opportunity for some major new royal architectural work. Although criticised in some circles for allegedly lacking imagination, the architects believed that given the history of the building and the surviving fabric, the new work had to be Gothic. The state dining room sideboard, which was 19 feet long and made out of rear rosewood and oak and gilded, was originally designed by Augustus Pugin (1812-1852). It had to be replicated by N.E.J. Stevenson only using some photographs and some descriptions.
The new roof for St George's Hall is an example of a hammer-beam ceiling. The new chapel and adjoining cloisters were realigned to form a new processional route from the private apartments, through an octagonal vestibule, into St George's Hall.
The first, structural, stage of the restoration was completed May 1996. Final fitting out, which was originally planned to finish by spring 1998, occurred on 17 November 1997.
Read more about this topic: 1992 Windsor Castle Fire
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