With an Eye to the London Skyline Staff from CRGP are more regularly taking the route south as demand for its capabilities and often specialist expertise becomes widely recognised. Among the projects with which CRGP is currently engaged in the South-east is the refurbishment of the former Barclays Bank headquarters in Gracechurch Street. Our role is as quantity surveyors, acting for the Bank of Scotland, with a particular remit to ensure due diligence.

This building sits on the site of an old Roman forum and when it was built its basement was excavated to a depth of 65ft. It is on a raft foundation with some perimeter columns outside the basement footprint supported on piles. The policy of CRGP is to have a director of the company involved in every project and on a recent visit to Gracechurch Street, Bob Turnbull found himself in the course of his inspection on the roof of the 132ft-high building.

From this pinnacle, he could see many well-known landmark buildings and features as he scanned the landscape north, south, east and west.