Much of the primary restoration and conservation work focussed upon the front and rear walls of 12 Henrietta Street.

While much of the fabric dates from the late 18th century, No. 12 as noted, originally matched its pair at No.11 Henrietta Street and incorporates much of the original early brick fabric dating from c.1735.

Many of the problems and challenges presented in the conservation and restoration of No. 12 had their origins in these alterations and interventions of the 1780s. The subdivision and enlargement of the house and a massive intervention in the early 19th century (in which a floor was removed and the four storey structure converted into a three storey Town House), resulted in significant stresses being imposed upon the front, rear and party walls, (which had new wider and deeper window opes cut into them, old ones blocked, and restraining floor joists removed), causing walls to shift outwards and to bulge and subside, while the stresses in the poorly baked local brick caused significant cracking at reveals and structural failure of heads.

This situation was exacerbated further by a prolonged lack of maintenance during the latter part of the 19^th century and for most of the 20^th century, (during which time the house had fallen into tenement use) and was made even worse by ill-conceived repairs which contributed to decay and dilapidation.

By the mid 2000’s it had become obvious that a programme of phased works was necessary in order to stabilise the house involving structural repair and intervention, re-pointing, insertion of new brick arched heads and repairs to stone-work, guttering and roofing.

The first phase of the works involved the repair and conservation of the rear south facing wall which was in very poor condition due to its high levels of exposure and to historic alterations.

It also addressed urgent concerns in relation to the dilapidation of the Portland stone door-case to the front of the house, front basement stone work and roofing repairs. These works were completed in 2013.

The second phase of works addressed the front wall which while generally not in such poor condition, nonetheless, needed urgent conservation and repair work. It also included for the careful dismantling and repair of window joinery and glazing and window repair using all original material.

Cleaning and repair works were carried out to the front railing plinth stonework and to the rare Portland Stone Plat band at first floor level.

In addition, the modern concrete brick parapet was retained but dyed and re-pointed to improve the overall appearance and weatherproofing of this element

While not in such poor condition as the rear wall, the front façade presented particular problems including severely damaged but original window sashes and frames requiring a forensic approach in terms of analysis and repair, and a particularly friable and delicate series of surviving areas of early and late 18^th century tuck pointing

Because of the public profile of this façade and the fact that it retained many facets of previous pointing and brickwork our conservation strategy was based upon essential repair only where decay of brick, stone, pointing, reveals or timber sashes and frames was happening and our repair approach was to examine each brick course, each pointing type, and each timber sash component with a view to minimising loss of original material.

It was decided that new jointing / pointing should be dyed and textured to match existing adjacent fill. This is particularly apparent in the case of the window repairs:

This forensic approach to brick, stone and pointing repair sought to minimise replacement or loss of original material. Cleaning of brick and stone was carried out carefully by hand and the retention of the patina of brick and stone was a priority.