Kenilworth, six miles SW of Coventry is famous for many things. It has the oldest pub in Warwickshire, the 16th Century ‘Virgins and Castle’, John Sumner (1780 – 1862) Archbishop of Canterbury was born there and around 25,000 people call it home.
Many of these residents would also, no doubt, highlight their 900-year-old castle with its tower designed to woo Elizabeth I and the fact that Tom Mackie whose family own City Electrical Factors has recently been included in the Sunday Times list of richest people.
Started by ex GEC man, Tom, in the 1951 to supply electrical cable and light fittings to local electrical contractors, the company, still privately owned, has gone from strength to strength and now boasts over 400 branches in the UK alone. They also have an expanding network across Australia, USA and Spain.
Its head office is located just six miles from their first outlet in a former cinema on Station Road, Kenilworth. The building opened as the Alexandra Picture House in 1922 and over the years has had many different guises. In the 1930’s it became the Alexandra theatre and when the cinema closed in 1956 it eventually became a bingo hall. This closed down in 1971 and the building converted into offices.
Located in the historic part of the town, the building has been recently extensively renovated on behalf of CEF. There were, however, strict planning rules to adhere to, one being that the exterior renovation had to match the surrounding properties in order to reflect the historic aspect of the Town.
To replicate the traditional features of the building we supplied a mixture of stone effect cills and render effect profiles using our unique Stone-Coat product. This is a pseudo stone effect that is manufactured off site and easily installed on site
It is available in a variety of finished effects and can be produced in almost any shape or profile. It is ideal for retro-fitting to existing buildings especially when, as in this case, the local planning office lay down strict criteria for any refurbishment.
At Build Lite, we specialise in Stone-Coat, offering unmatched knowledge and skill in architectural transformations across the UK. For further information, contact our team of specialists.
