The Red Tower is to get a new roof in the spring. The last substantial work on the roof was in the 1970s and wear and tear means that it needs to be replaced. All the good tiles will be retained and there will be minimal change to the appearance of the roof due to the care and diligence of the Walls Manager, Stephen Gandolfi and a firm of tilers, Keymer, from Hull who are anxious to match the tiles closely.
The tile on the left marked 2.77 at the top is an original and those to the right are well matched new ones.
It is anticipated that the last two weeks of February will see the commencement of the roofing project with scaffolding going up and the area made safe. Professional roofers and City of York masons will set to work in March to replace the roof and improve the insulation.
We are hoping to engage the community by offering a ‘Tag-a-Tile’ or ‘Make-a-Tile’ event which the tile company will lead on. More information on this will appear in the New Year.
The closure of the Red Tower for 6-8 weeks will inevitably cause serious disruption to our pay-as-you-feel café and, to a lesser extent, the food distribution. There will not be any café service or Open Days during that period, but food distribution will shift to Fishergate Postern thanks to a kind offer from our neighbours and colleagues, The Friends of York Walls who will host us and provide a place to store the supermarket surplus when it comes in from collection. Food will be distributed as normal from there on a Monday.
Once we have our new roof, we are keen to open up as much as possible. This will require a doubling of our volunteers. So, if you would like to volunteer, do let us know.
Mike Calvert, Director
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