Tender
British Museum tenders nine million pound Reading Room roof works
By Staff Writer | 25 August 2026
The British Museum has gone to tender for a principal contractor to carry out roof repair and replacement works to the Grade I listed Round Reading Room. The notice was published on 24 August 2026 at 5:23pm under the identifier 080571-2026 and records an estimated value of 9,000,000 pounds excluding value added tax, and 10,800,000 pounds including it.
The procurement is an open procedure under the Procurement Act 2023, in a single lot. The tender deadline is 5 October 2026 at 1:00pm and the award period ends on 16 November 2026. The estimated contract period runs from 4 January 2027 to 31 March 2028. The notice records that appointment is aimed for November 2026, a start on site in January 2027 and practical completion targeted for the first quarter of 2028.
The works are procured as a single stage traditional tender under a JCT Standard Building Contract 2024 with Contractor's Design Portion. Tenderers must sign a confidentiality agreement, whose terms the notice states are not subject to negotiation, before they are given access to the tender pack. A copy is available by request from the museum's procurement address.
Four work areas on one roof
The notice describes the Round Reading Room as designed by Sydney Smirke and completed in 1857, combining iron primary construction with brick masonry, a copper clad dome and a fully glazed central lantern. The roofscape has three elements: a perimeter flat roof described as the Snow Gallery Roof, the copper dome in batten roll standing seam, and a twenty sided glazed lantern with patent glazing, timber sidelights and a decorative internal laylight.
The scope divides into four areas. On the Snow Gallery Roof, the existing membrane and mineral wool flat roof build-up is stripped to the concrete deck and replaced with a warm roof using a cold applied liquid waterproofing membrane, with upstands, penetrations and new lightning protection. The copper dome receives a close quarters condition survey and conservation led repair from temporary scaffold, with localised panel replacement, seam and flashing repairs and full replacement of the lantern base apron, and the notice requires this to be undertaken by heritage accredited metal roofing specialists.
The third area replaces the patent glazed lantern above the dome with a bespoke tiered steel glazing bar system, repairs and redecorates external windows and internal sliding sashes, and conserves the historic internal laylight in situ. The fourth covers maintenance access and services: fall arrest and restraint systems, internal walkway refurbishment, replacement heating, LED lighting and integration with the building management system.
The constraints are the tender
The site is entirely enclosed within the Great Court roof, so there is no direct external crane access. A stage 4 design for a cable restrained scaffold system and temporary roof has been developed by an access specialist, and completing it is a contractor's design portion item, alongside a full lifting, logistics and evacuation strategy. Scaffold and temporary works, the tiered patent glazing, the access systems and the services installations are all named as design portion items, so a bidder takes design responsibility for the means of reaching the work as well as for parts of the work itself.
The Reading Room is to remain open to staff and the public for the maximum time possible, and although temporary closures and exclusions will be possible there, the museum itself remains open without restriction throughout construction. Noise and vibration limits apply and protection of the interior and the collections is mandatory. Asbestos containing materials and lead based paints are confirmed present within the lantern and on historic ironwork, and safe methods of removal must be provided.
Those conditions govern the programme more than the quantities do. Fifteen months are allowed from the January 2027 start to the March 2028 contract end for a scheme in which the access design must be finished before the first sheet of copper is touched, and in which the dome repair quantity cannot be fixed until the close quarters survey is done from that scaffold.
What a bidder has to show
The notice sets out the experience a contractor must demonstrate: conservation of Grade I or Grade II star listed structures, heritage metal roofing, liquid applied roofing, bespoke patent glazing fabrication, heritage window joinery and ironwork, work within live occupied public buildings, and complex temporary works in constrained environments. Selection is stated to be on capability, heritage experience and commercial submission.
The notice publishes no weighting between those three, no quantities, no condition survey findings for the dome, and no listed building consent position. It states the listing grade but does not record what consents are in place for the lantern replacement, which is the element that changes the building's fabric most visibly. Those answers sit with the tender documents, and the confidentiality agreement stands between a bidder and the documents.