Work to repair and restore a prominent Farnham town centre building that has been behind scaffolding for more than five years should begin this summer.
The 18th-century facade of Farnham Museum, housed in the Grade I-listed Wilmer House on West Street, has been covered since warnings in November 2018 that the 300-year-old facade was “putting the public at risk”.
Two information sessions for residents were held last month to discuss the project, which will be funded by a £734,335 grant from Arts Council England. Farnham Residents Councillor George Hesse has now said that the long overdue repair work should soon begin.
Cllr Hesse said: “The length of time the scaffolding has been up on the front of The Museum of Farnham has been partly caused by the lengthy process and delays in securing funding for the repair to the brickwork on the front of the building, condemned as unsafe in 2015 by a structural engineer.
“The current scaffolding is simply a safety structure to protect pedestrians in the event that a piece of masonry came loose during a storm or high winds.
“A lot of work has been put in behind the scenes by Officers and Councillors at Waverley over the past several years to get funding and a specialist Conservation Building Consultant and Chartered Building Surveyor has now been retained by Waverley Borough Council, along with a project team, to oversee the repair and restoration works, which I understand are due to be started this Summer.”
While the work takes place more scaffolding will be in place and Cllr Hesse has urged residents “who have had to look at ugly safety scaffolding for a long period” to be patient.
Wilmer House was completed in 1718 and Cllr Hesse says that the vital safety work will restore the townhouse to “one of the finest decorative rubbed-brick Georgian buildings in the county”.
Farnham Museum remains open and is hosting a market on Saturday, March 16 between 10am and 4pm. Entry is free.
For more information about the project, visit https://tinyurl.com/Farnham-Museum-restoration
