York-based Andrew G Podmore and Son is cleaning up in Manchester.

The company is restoring furniture kept at Manchester Town Hall as part of a £357million restoration project. The company first began working for its council in 2004.

Earlier this year, their extensive workshops at Northminster Business Park in Poppleton, York took delivery of the latest batch of 500 chairs, bookcases and library tables.

Despite using modern technology, much restoration still uses techniques imported from France in the 1820s.

READ MORE:

Managing director David Podmore says the furniture restoration involves items dating back to the 1870s when the town hall was built.

"Our expertise, whether it is on a major project like this or bringing new life back into a small family heirloom – maybe a clock case or a bureau or a trinket box – is in respecting the material and the manufacturing techniques of the original.”

That means using traditional animal glues and salvaged timber to match the original as well as French polishing techniques using original shellack polish and wax rather than modern synthetic finishes.

Podmores is one of only a handful of companies in the UK capable of carrying out the painstaking work set to take 2-3 years.

York Press:

David said: "It is not about making them look good as new. The skill is in creating an authentic finish to match the tone and timbre of the original Victorian oak furniture and the patina it has built over years of use.”

Podmores was set up by David’s father, Andrew, in 1968. Originally based in Grape Lane, the firm moved to Fossgate and later to East Mount Road, before moving to Poppleton in 2001.

In addition to ecclesiastical and local authority work – most recently at St Paul’s Cathedral and Canterbury and Newcastle cathedrals – the team undertakes smaller scale projects for individual.

David added: “Most of our private work comes through recommendations. In a throwaway age, there is a growing interest in saving, restoring and treasuring old artefacts, especially if they have a family connection. More often than not, it is the sentimental rather than the monetary value that matters to people who come to us. For us, getting it right, down to the last salvaged screw or veneer, is not just a job, it is a passion.”