The Golden Gates underwent a full major restoration by Hall Conservation Ltd, starting in September 2018 and was completed in June 2019. Cast by Coalbrookdale in 1862, the gates were originally designed for the international Exhibition and potentially for Queen Victoria’s Sandringham home in Norfolk. Unfortunately, her majesty was diverted from their trade stand, as clearly visible through the gates was a cast iron statue of Oliver Cromwell. Coalbrookdale had found it difficult to find an alternative market for the gates on this scale and they went into storage for over thirty years. 

 

In 1895, Frederick Monks, a councillor of Warrington and a partner of one of the country’s leading manufacturers of iron and steel, bought the gates and gifted them to Warrington Town Hall. 

 

The gates were last worked on in 1979 by Campbell Smith & Co. It was then that they were gilded and became iconic as ’The Golden Gates’. Before the works begun in 2018 the gates were severely corroded and structurally unsound. All painting and gilding had failed, castings were missing and loose.

 

The work involved dismantling the gates entirely and transporting them to the Hall Conservation Ltd workshop in London. Months of cleaning, conserving, repairing and recasting took place before any painting and gilding. Once all items were painted and gilded, they were then transported back to Warrington and re-installed in time for Walking Day on the 28th June, a celebration which happens annually to mark the opening of the gates.