Encapsulating the elevation above Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Frith Street — a venue at the centre of live music since 1959 — while the club kept trading every night, alongside Pinnacle Scaffolding.
The challenge
Ronnie Scott’s opens at 6.30pm and runs until 3am, every night. The works above it could not close the club, block its entrance or turn one of the most famous frontages in Soho into a building site. Frith Street is narrow and busy, the club’s neighbours sit wall to wall on either side, and anything loose on an elevation that tall would be flapping over a queue of customers and a pavement full of people.
How we approached it
Pinnacle Scaffolding built the scaffold to bridge the pavement on trusses, keeping the entrance and the footway clear underneath. The encapsulation was installed from above the club’s fascia up the full height of the elevation and around the returns, heat-welded into one continuous skin and shrunk tight to the frame. The finished wrap stops just above the sign, so the neon still reads from the street — and inside the enclosure, the club’s own neon lights the walkway.
The outcome
A sealed, drum-tight white elevation above a club that never shut. At night the whole wrap glows with the neon from the street below. Our thanks to the Ronnie Scott’s staff for looking after us throughout, and to Clive and the team at Pinnacle Scaffolding.
Working alongside contractors
Most of what we do arrives through scaffolding contractors and main contractors rather than direct. We work to your programme, your permits and your access windows, we supply RAMS as standard, and we are happy to be named on the job — as we have been here.