Bafta reopens with a little help from Global

The Bafta building’s multi-million refurbishment was unveiled at a lavish party in October.

Global Environmental carried out a full asbestos survey for the BAFTA’s headquarters in London, otherwise known as 195 Piccadilly, ahead of their extensive £25 million refurbishment.

Having closed in July 2019, work on the 138-year-old building which has been home to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts since 1974, started. This included major works to the site, including literally raising the roof. The roof has been lifted by 3 meters, adding an entire floor. Furthermore, the main event space is now powered by state-of-the-art Dolby technology.,

Global’s success in securing this contract can be traced back to October 2015, when we hosted a seminar with specialist construction consultancy firm Jackson Coles entitled, ‘How to save a fortune on asbestos’, after which we were approached by an Associate to provide a Research & Development survey. Following on from this, Global Environmental have since gone on to providing a consultancy service on the removal of all asbestos across the whole building, helping to facilitate the refurbishment.

Paul Riding, Quality Manager says, “To be on the project from start to finish is something that we as a company very rarely get to do. Add to that the invitation from the client to the re-opening of 195 Piccadilly and the opportunity to see the end result is a great feeling, knowing that they are happy and appreciated everything that we did for them throughout the last few years.”

Pauline Campbell, Head of Property at BAFTA added, “The team at Global worked diligently to ensure the redevelopment was safe, secure, and a smooth operation. As a legacy project, the regeneration of BAFTA’s HQ will be felt for many generations to come within the arts industries.”

The team that worked on the project, consisted of Paul Riding, Michael Gunn, Danny Webber, Daniel Illambas and Paul Finlay who share over 50 years in experience in the asbestos industry. While 195 Piccadilly is still yet to be formally opened to the public until early 2022, BAFTA held an event at the end of October which our team attended. A champagne reception and tour of the brand-new facilities was very much enjoyed, and bought a little glamour to the day to day!