Trisha started it all by delivering the latest surplus clerical carpets from Lambeth Palace to Rotherhithe. If she knew the trouble this would cause, she may have used freecycle instead. If we laid it, this would then be the only clean part of the bell ringing chamber so something had to be done. In a moment of foolishness, aided by a pint of porter at the Angel, Andrew L suggested to Andrew C that the chamber should really be cleaned and painted before a carpet went down because it couldn’t be done afterwards. As we both had a few days leave coming up we agreed to do this over two days and roped in Simon as he has lots of fancy tools and offered an industrial vacuum to play with.

Multitasking Simon painting while balancing on a dodgy stepladder

So the team assembled on a sunny Monday morning and set to.  Andrew L vacuumed the staircase, Andrew C cleared out the cupboard, and Simon researched the ethnicities of the various young ladies serving coffee at the Watch House.  We all then vacuumed and washed the walls, cupboards, panelling etc of the ringing chamber.  Morag turned up to measure for new cushions in the wall seats (technical term needed here please).

Testing out LInda’s failed cake between painting tasks

Tuesday was painting day but not before Simon’s fine effort at changing the light bulbs in the chandelier. This was not possible due to the height of the thing but we had great fun trying to get a long enough ladder up the winding staircase. Eventually the walls were painted, the wood varnished, the cake eaten and everything cleared away.

The decorators between finishing work and heading off for a pint

So, it all looks better to us, but then we would say that wouldn’t we ?  As with all decorating, it is good in theory, but in practice just makes the undecorated parts look even worse.  So, we just need to get the bell and clock chamber cleaned, the stairs painted, cushions replaced, and carpet laid and we’re done. Any organisers and volunteers will be welcome…..

Thanks to Andrew C and Simon for their efforts, amusing company, and photos.