Cleaning supplies prepare London for Royal Wedding
07 March 2011
London uses cleaning supplies to prepare tourist attractions for the Royal Wedding
Workers have been using cleaning supplies doing overtime carrying out cleaning and maintenance work ahead of one of the biggest state occasions the country has seen for years.
With an extra million people expected to visit the capital and upto a billion more tuning in to watch on TV, the eyes of the world will be firmly placed on London for Kate and Williams big day. Councils are purchasing extra cleaning supplies to ensure our streets and top attractins are cleaned up and looking their best for the occassion.
Here a cleaning operative uses a power washer with specialist cleaning chemicals to clean a statue of King George V outside Westminster Abbey, part of a wider maintenance programme to clean up Londons treasured landmarks.
Meanwhile Westminster Abbey itself is to get a million pound
makeover in time for the wedding undergoing a major conservation
programme to restore its most precious works of art.
The Abbey, which is expected to host up to 2,000 guests on
the day, including Royals and heads of state from around the
world, is to receive a grant from an American bank to conserve more
than 10 of its most important treasures.
Among the artefacts to be specially cleaned and restored in the run-up to the wedding include the Cosmati Pavement, the medieval tile mosaic in front of the High Altar where the couple are expected to take their vows. Specialist cleaning supplies suitable or use on the delicate surfaces are being used.
A 14th century portrait of King Richard II, which hangs on a pillar by the Great West Door and will be one of the first things that members of the wedding procession see as they enter the Abbey, will also be cleaned up as part of the restoration.
Painted on wooden panels circa 1398, it depicts the king enthroned in coronation robes, holding a sceptre and orb, and is the earliest known contemporary painted portrait of an English sovereign.
Thought to have been painted by the French artist André Beauneveu, the picture has long been in need of conservation, which will include rejoining the joints between the wooden panels that have gradually separated, and cleaning the picture's surface.
Visitor numbers have increased since the Abbey was announced as the venue for the wedding and once the cleaning and restoration work is complete thousands more will be able to see the works of art in their former glory.
