Topping Off Ceremony Celebrates Building Project Milestone

To the backdrop of bright sunny skies on Tuesday 11 October, St Paul’s School was sent a batch of good luck at a ‘topping off’ ceremony to mark the steady progression of the re-development project.

Topping off, also known as topping out, is a tradition within the construction industry that sees a small celebration of continued success when the last, and usually the highest, beam of a building structure has been placed. The practice is traced back to Scandinavian custom.

With the attendance of key senior staff members, and the hard-working team behind the £77m development, Chairman of the Governors, Johnny Robertson was presented an engraved trowel to honour the event.

St Paul’s is currently in the middle of rebuilding the old dining hall to make way for a three-storey building that will house new kitchen and dining facilities; a new Walker Library on two floors overlooking the Thames; 28 classrooms; and the new energy plant for the whole site, following on from the newly built Science faculty.

75,000 man hours have been invested in the project so far. Phase 1 of the new construction, undertaken by Geoffrey Osborne Ltd, will be completed in Autumn 2017, with Phase 2 expected to commence immediately after.