The Lord Mayor is to watch the cleaning of City Hall's bronze doors on Wednesday (30 September) at 2.30 pm.
The doors are to be cleaned and waxed thanks to generous funding organised by one of Norwich’s blue badge guides.
The Lord Mayor will be presented with a copy of a book that identifies 58 Norwich and Norfolk world communities.
The group viewing the cleaning will include representatives of Norwich City Council, the Norwich City Blue Badge Tourist Guides Association and the Norfolk and Norwich World Family, as well as chairman of the Inner City Forum Julian Foster and Huguette Andries-Smith, honorary French consul for East Anglia.
The work will be carried out by experts Hirst Conservation at a cost of approximately £1840. The money comes from the Norfolk and Norwich World Family of Communities.
Derek Bickford-Smith, founder of the Norfolk and Norwich World Family of Communities, organised the cleaning.
He said: “The opportunity to announce this project as being funded by our 58 interrelated world communities - the largest family of this kind in the world - is already being welcomed.
“Some 15 of these communities have so far written of the pride they feel in having their names linked to it, the latest being the city of Norwich in New York State.
“This will be an excuse for a repeat of the1996 first world gathering in our Norwich when some 40 communities were represented.”
In the week beginning September 28, the six doors will be steam cleaned, hard waxed and buffed.
The doors were cast in 1938 by metal founder J Starkie Gardner, and have 18 roundels by sculptor James Woodford showing the history of Norwich.
The city council’s conservation team, which monitors Grade II* listed building City Hall, has approved the proposals. The doors do not urgently need conservation but do need some maintenance.
The colour of the doors is natural to weathered bronze and it could be harmful to the metal to return them to a shine, but cleaning and waxing them will keep them in good condition for years to come.
28 September 2009