Glass Times editor, Luke Wood, talks to Pearsons Glass sales and marketing director, Ben Stanley, to learn more about the company’s specialist restoration service.

With over 120 years’ experience in the industry, Liverpool’s Pearsons Glass is one of the longest established glass companies in the UK

Today, Pearsons operates from a state-of-the-art 25,000ft2 facility and continues to invest heavily in the latest machinery and processes to ensure the highest quality of product and service for its customers.

That includes a significant £750,000 outlay in the last 12 months on new CNC equipment and straight line edgers, as well as a switch to greener electric power for its processing plant and further investment for 2023 that will include upgraded IT systems.

Glass processing, including toughening, laminating, sand blasting and much more besides, represents the largest part of the business, but in addition to servicing growing demand for a wide range of glass across commercial and residential sectors, Pearsons also specialises in the relatively niche – but high value – restoration market.

Sales and marketing director, Ben Stanley, explains more. “We’ve had a very good year across all sides of the business, demand is still high for both glass processing and art glass. In the past, that was fuelled by shop fitting and the retail sector and now we’re experiencing increasing demand for shower enclosers, balustrading and glass splash backs within high end residential projects.

“Our ongoing investment in machinery means we’re very well placed to service these – however this is just one element of our overall product offer. We also have the experience to be able to cater for a wide range of heritage projects that need a much more specialist solution.

“These can include residential buildings but typically it’s for larger scale commercial restorations, where listed or heritage style buildings are being converted and require traditional glass in order to pass inspection.

“These projects can vary from being either high or low volume but they require a great deal of expertise – not just in the ability to supply the specialist glass required, but in how it’s processed,” continues Ben.

“It’s not something you can easily automate, so having the right skills in place is vital. It’s one of the biggest challenges when it comes to restoration. It’s a different skill set to cutting and handling heritage glass than regular float because traditional blown glass, for example, is 2-3mm thick so it can’t go on an automated cutting bed. It has to be cut by hand.

“A lot of our employees have been with us a long time – one of our cutters has worked for Pearsons for 40 years and so the experience we have on the shop floor gives us a huge advantage.”

Ben explains that while Pearsons has the skills to handle heritage glass, he adds that it’s equally vital to have access to the highest quality raw materials in the first place.

In order to do that, Pearsons has forged close relationships with two key manufacturers of specialist, heritage glass – Schott and Lamberts – allowing the company to supply into even the most demanding restoration projects.
“Some heritage and listed buildings have glass that dates back to the 18th century and in many cases, restoration work requires that glass to be replaced like for like,” he says. “In that case, we are able to supply traditional, hand-blown glass from Lamberts in Germany. It is possible to source blown glass from elsewhere, but there’s nowhere that can deliver the volume that we usually require, with the level of quality that Lamberts do.

“Producing hand-blown glass is an absolute fine art and Lamberts are the masters,” he continues. “They operate in teams, co-ordinated by a master blower, and watching them work the molten glass is incredible.

“The result is highly authentic, with all the natural imperfections you might expect – and want – for a heritage building.

“Sometimes however, the requirement is for glass that closely matches a heritage aesthetic, but which also measures up to modern standards, particular for safety.

“For that we use thicker, 4.5mm glass from Schott,” says Ben. “In my opinion, Schott is one of the most forward-thinking glass manufacturers in the world. They do some amazing work, such as producing glass for folding mobile phones, for medical applications and much more, so while they’re restoration division is relatively small in comparison, the end product is absolutely first class.

“It is optically purer, and much crisper than the hand-blown option but it’s still very close aesthetically to traditional glass and, importantly, it can be toughened.”

Case study – Syon House

The Great Conservatory at Syon House in West London is the perfect example of how Pearsons’ expertise has helped to transform an iconic heritage building.

Part of a 200-acre estate that dates back to the 1500s, the stunning, neo-classical glass and stone orangery was originally constructed in the 18th century.

Pearsons worked with Dorothea Resorations for over five years to restore the Great Conservatory, supplying bespoke Geotheglas glass from Schott. Designed to look almost identical to the original glass, the Geotheglas was toughened in order to meet building regulations, providing a much more desirable solution to typical 3mm conservation glass which would have needed to be laminated in order to comply to safety standards.

“Syon House is the largest conservation project we have worked on to date, it’s a really high profile example of how we can provide class leading products to the heritage sector,” says Ben.

“Ultimately, we can cater for a wide range of heritage and restoration projects.

“That could be something that requires a highly authentic, handmade solution or as in the case of Syon House, it could be a traditional style glass that utilises modern processing technology.

“Either way, we have the products and above all else, the experience, to accommodate even the most demanding scenarios.”