Today we are excited to celebrate the grand opening of the Sedgwick Building’s top floor after extensive works to remove asbestos and renovate the space.
Following an opening ceremony, staff and students explored the newly refurbished area. The space incorporates offices for staff and graduate students, meeting rooms, library storage and a common area in a design that blends a modern feel with the listed building’s original architectural features.
Cara Hanman, Alumni Co-ordinator, visited the top floor midway through its renovation, and saw the Sedgwick Building’s unusual roofing structure exposed for the first time since its construction over a century ago. In the article below, Cara describes some of the architectural gems exposed during the works – features that have been combined into a new layout that staff and students will continue to enjoy for decades to come.
Renovation works expose the Sedgwick Building’s skeleton
Work to remove asbestos materials on the top floor of the Sedgwick Building has given the Department’s leadership team a fantastic opportunity to update and redesign the available working space. This work will allow for a larger number of people to remain working and studying at the downtown site and will also allow for better collaborations between researchers. The materials removal has also exposed the skeleton of the roof of the building that was last visible on this scale more than 120 years ago when it was being built.
The history of the building is well known – from Professor McKenny-Hughes’ work to raise the necessary funds to the opening of the building being attended by King Edward VII in 1904 – and most alumni will be aware that it was a major feat to create the Department's downtown home. What you might not know is that the construction included a metal framework which had an impressive ‘rib cage’ that supported the roof structure.
The Museum has a photograph of the roof under construction (taken some time between 1899 and 1904). The image is taken from within the specimen store looking east, and shows row after row of metal roof trusses like a rib cage exposed to the sky. The spire and chimney of the United Reformed Church (St Columba’s) is visible in the distance. Once the roof was on and lined and wall partitions installed, only portions of some individual roof trusses remained visible; with the array of successive trusses largely hidden from sight.
A photo taken during construction, looking towards St Columba’s Church (visible in background).
The view towards St Columba’s Church in 2025 with the room stripped back to its bones once again.
The asbestos decontamination work exposed the full majesty of the metalwork once again, giving us a chance to admire the architectural beauty otherwise kept unseen. Fortunately, the Department plans to keep the majority of what has been exposed visible, insulating and lining the ceiling where it attaches to the trusses rather than hiding the metal supports behind panelling.
With the walls stripped out, it was possible to admire what is a vast space. It is a rare opportunity and no doubt has been quite a challenge to maximise the use of such an area. The top floor was originally designed as the specimen storage space and so was built to hold a hefty weight of rocks and fossils. There was an old warning sign at the entrance to the area that declared, “this floor is capable of sustaining 175lbs per square foot. This loading must not be exceeded.” The tone was stern enough to make some visitors to the floor pause before realising the load amount was substantial.
Left: The Victorian fireplace that will remain behind panelling. Right: The original loading sign at the entrance to the top floor store.
A visit to take photos of the top floor midway through the work was a brilliant chance to admire the structure and revel in the unobstructed space that had been exposed, if only for a brief time before work to make the floor habitable once again was begun. Along with the trusses having been made visible, we could admire the iron radiators, which were stacked up waiting to be returned to their wall spaces. A walk around to the back of the stack brought the sludgy, dark green of their original paintwork into view – it is fair to say that they were not painted for prettiness! There have been assurances that the paintwork on both the radiators and the trusses will be more muted going forward.
This visit also gave us the chance to investigate the boarded up Victorian fireplace that sits about one third to halfway down the Downing Street facing wall. The chimney connects it all the way down to the fireplace in the old Department Administrators office on the ground floor. The fireplace won’t be left exposed, thanks to the unfortunate need to place a panel wall up to the centre of it but is an interesting reminder of the history of the building. We are still baffled as to why someone left a lightbulb behind the boarding around the fireplace though…
This article was originally published in GeoCam 2026. Read the full issue here.