The Pepys Building Restoration Update

There has been a lot going on since the Pepys Building was surrounded by scaffolding and encased in plastic in the summer of 2025.

Our contractor, Regent Construction, began with the disassembly of internal walls, ceilings, floors, windows and doors, and the removal of redundant services and asbestos (rather more than we would have liked). In the absence of proper floors, there followed a period of distinctly wobbly access with glimpses of alarming drops to lower levels.

The removal of the roof tiles, battens and felt roofing revealed the building’s original roof timbers in all their glory, a stupendous sight to those who climbed to the very top of the scaffolding. The exposure of the roof timbers allowed for the extraction of small cores for tree‑ring dating, the art and science of dendrochronology, which confirmed the recorded dates for the building work being carried out between 1670 and 1703. Six samples from the roof over the Left Cloister came from four trees all felled in spring 1677, corresponding to the earlier scheme for the building, which was then transformed with the west front and extended roof design of Robert Hooke. One timber in the front range has a last measured ring of 1683, and two rafters over the Right Cloister date to the 1690s, one being felled in the winter of 1694–95.

With the building now completely opened up, it was time to install a massive steel frame to support the floor above the new Seminar Room at the back of Right Cloister, to open up the new entrance to the building at the river end of the Pepys Cloister, and to start to prepare for the installation of the lift from the new ground floor Foyer.

More recently, the first fix for mechanical and electrical services has been taking place, still throwing up some architectural anomalies and strange original building materials, and new ceilings and flooring are starting to go in. For the College’s Pepys Restoration Team and Board, the main questions now are those of finishes, such as light fittings, bathroom tiles, wall colours and balustrade paintwork.

As the number of building surprises finally subsides, we are very hopeful of getting the building back in the late summer and fully ready to be re‑occupied at the start of the 2026–27 academic year. Restoring the Pepys Library to its newly refurbished home will take a little while longer.

View photos of the Pepys Restoration Project  from start to the present on the Pepys Progress page.

By Professor Tom Spencer (1973), Chair of the Pepys Restoration Project Board

This article was first published in Magdalene Matters Issue 56.