The Pepys Restoration Project

The College has focused on raising funds to completely renovate and repurpose the unique Grade I listed Pepys Building since 2024. Work is now underway to carefully restore the structure of the building. When complete there will be a new roof, new wiring, new heating, and a new lift to make the world-renowned Pepys Library accessible to all.

The newly restored building will house the Academic Office (Tutorial and Admissions teams), offer new supervision and teaching rooms as well as new dedicated spaces for researchers who come from all over the world to study the remarkable volumes held in the Pepys Library.

Thanks to the fantastic response of our Members and Friends we have now raised half of the £6.3 million cost to restore this important heritage building back to its former glory. We are hugely grateful but continue to raise funds for this special project as every additional pound received will help to cover the cost of employing highly skilled artisans and the carefully chosen, sometimes handmade, materials needed to ensure that the Pepys building will delight many generations to come; indeed every pound raised will minimise the top up needed from the College’s reserves.

We aim to restore the Pepys as sympathetically and sustainably as possible, just as we did when building the award-winning New Library. You will find outline details of the project in the pages below and we will update the progress of the work over the next 18 months.

Supporting the Pepys Restoration Project will enable you to have your name or that of a loved one recorded for posterity in the Book of Benefactors which will be on display in the building on completion of the work.