St Mary’s Church Monkseaton, Whitley Bay

When Anthony Keith Architects were challenged to restore the altar space at St Mary’s Church, they knew they had to get it right and reached out to CTD Architectural Tiles for support.

The challenge was to match a natural stone tile that had been installed many years ago – always a tough job when you think of the wear and tear of a busy church and the fact that the mountain where the original stone has been quarried was likely to have been mined out many years ago.

Undaunted by this holy quest CTD Architectural Tiles sourced a large selection of real marbles for Anthony Keith Architects to choose from with confidence that one vintage would be suitable for their up and coming project.

CTD Architectural Tiles Sean Lane was involved throughout the project with Anthony Keith Architects, working to a very tight design brief all the way down to the tile calibrations and specific quarry locations.

Adhering to such a brief meant we were liaising with a number of European quarries to source the right product. Allied to the product challenge was an equally tricky technical challenge around the installation.In light of this, the main floor area only had a thickness of 12mm so an appropriate solution was needed, whilst also being cost effective.

The finished installation is stunning with the altar and steps laid using CTD Ecru Honed Marble in three different sizes and two different thicknesses.

Looking back at finished installation, it was clear to see that this was going to be a challenge but with knowledge and experience, we were able to deliver a great project from conception to completion.

The full supply chain of CTD Architectural Tiles, Anthony Keith Architects & P.Plunkett worked together to produce a fantastic end result for St Mary’s Church.

CTD Specification Manager Sean Lane States "this was an extremely complex but wonderful project to be involved in. The invention and creation of the stone floor took several months but as you can see, the result was fantastic"