Balliol College Handrails

The Balliol College handrails were the final instalment in a much larger project with Architects Penwarden Hale. This involved the redesign of the the colleges porters lodge, through which staff and students access this world famous university. We had previously designed and forged a pair of pedestrian gates within the lodge itself. The gates lead onto the handrails shown here, ensuring easy access down the new stonework ramp and steps.

Each of the uprights is forged with a hot punched connection to the mid rail giving a hugely strong structure. At over 20 meters long the handrails join seamlessly with halving joints and feature a tactile custom forged cap rail. With no room for adjustment the greatest challenge within this project was ensuring a perfect fit. This was achieved by meticulous full size templating within our Sussex forge.  Galvanised and painted, Oxford, 2021