Heritage Consultancy

We are specialist surveyors with acknowledged expertise in traditional and period properties. We advise on a whole range of properties – castles and country houses, town houses, cottages, farm buildings, buildings in good condition, buildings in shocking condition, buildings with supposedly inexplicable defects, bridges, towers, cellars. We help clients to maintain, to repair, to improve, to alter, to build. We provide building healthcare – from a routine check to pathology, and from accident and emergency to planned surgery – your building is safe in our hands.

Our favourite conservation projects begin by working on a design with our client, preparing concepts and taking them through the local authority consent processes – listed building consent and building standards approval – before dealing with procurement and project delivery.

Heritage Expertise

We are happy to advise on the complex matters like listed building consent for alterations, the introduction of energy-efficiency measures and renewable technologies into traditional buildings, fire safety, the application of Building Standards in heritage work, strategies for VAT in historic buildings.

We supply services to Historic England; are corporate members of Historic Houses and the Listed Property Owners Club; our principal surveyor is an RICS-Accredited Historic Buildings Professional; an assessor for the Heritage Lottery Fund and regularly speaks for the RICS, HH, LPOC, SPAB and others.

Award Winning

Smith & Garratt has awards including the Scottish Borders Conservation & Design Award, RICS Building Conservation commendation, a coveted Georgian Group Award for the best restoration of a Georgian interior and the top accolade – the Historic Houses/Sotheby’s Restoration of the Year Award.

Whether dealing with restoration, renovation or development, Smith & Garratt deliver work to 'conservation standards'.

Case Studies

Building Defects

Smith & Garratt survey buildings. We understand the fabric of buildings, we diagnose defects, we undertake building pathology. Here are examples of some things we see and write about. Fungi Defective chimney flashings – resulted in dry rot (Serpula Lacrymans)18 months later. Ink-caps (Coprinus Domesticus), sometimes known as ‘plaster mushrooms’. Although not destructive like dry-rot, … Read more

Bessie Surtees House & 37 Tanner Row

Historic England asked us to look at their offices in Newcastle and York to recommend works to improve fire safety within these listed buildings. Bessie Surtees House in Newcastle is an amalgam of three historic buildings on the river front, the oldest dating from 1465 (the late medieval period). Timber framed, five storeys high and … Read more

Coldingham Priory

The earliest building Smith & Garratt has worked on to date is Coldingham Priory, established in 635AD. The Priory Church has been substantially damaged and re-built several times through the centuries and its elevations range in date and stone type. In all the mayhem some of the stones got laid the wrong way – what … Read more

Adam Bridge

A dilapidated single-arch bridge crosses the Swardon Burn in the grounds of Marchmont Estate. Known as the Adam Bridge, it was probably, in fact, designed by George Paterson around 1759 and was constructed of ashlar sandstone blocks to a classical design including pilasters, string courses and a decorative balustrade. It is listed, Category B. Inadequate … Read more

Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Oak Room

Smith & Garratt managed the restoration and delivery of the Oak Room to the new V&A at Dundee – on time and on budget. This is the V&A’s press briefing for its opening day in September 2018: The Oak Room: A Mackintosh Masterpiece Tearoom interior designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1907 for Miss Cranston’s … Read more

Kinloch Castle

The names of a few great houses come up time and again when conservation specialists get talking. One such is Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rum (built 1897-1900, Category-A). Play-house of unimaginably wealthy and eccentric industrialists, the Bullough’s (mass manufacturers of spinning and weaving machinery during Britain’s imperial century), and finished, furnished and equipped … Read more

Marchmont House

A-Listed Palladian mansion, Marchmont House in Berwickshire was built 1750-55 by Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont, substantially to a 1730s design by William Adam, overseen after Adam’s death by Thomas Gibson. Fittings included some of Thomas Clayton’s finest plasterwork. It was bought at auction in 1913 by industrialist Robert McEwen, with only minor alterations … Read more

Bughtrig House

A-Listed Bughtrig House, Berwickshire has been extended several times since construction of the original three-bay house around 1785. Smith & Garratt were engaged by the Ramsay family to undertake a comprehensive programme of restoration, repair, and renovation, including asbestos removal, renewables (solar, PV, and GSHP), and installation of a new, technically challenging, limestone, cantilevered staircase … Read more

...What Our Clients Have to Say

Restoration of A-Listed Country House

“We want everyone who worked with such skill and craftsmanship to see the finished product, and for them and their families to feel proud of what they have achieved.” - WR, Berwickshire

Green-Oak-Framed Extension to Listed Cottage

“I am writing to say how delighted we are with your transformation of [our cottage], it looks beautiful. We didn’t realise at first how well your design would work, but the more we lived in it the more impressed we became.” - SW, Northumberland

Listed Building Consent for Extension to Country House

“This is tremendous news. Total vindication of the Garratt approach – congratulations and well done! Many thanks for all your work on this.” - Rt Hon Lord M, East Lothian

Major Installation At V&A Dundee

“I'd like to do something to mark the incredible achievement with Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Oak Room. I'd like to personally take your team out for a pint or whatever, and also take yourself out for a meal.” - JT, Dundee

Correcting Dangerous Lean on a Roadside Wall

“Just wanted to say thanks – and please pass on my thanks to the builders! Fantastic job. I recommended you to someone with a similar problem.” - JF, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Investigations of Causes of Damp in Listed Houses

“Thanks for your report. I appreciate the time you took in preparing it and also your expert knowledge which is evident throughout. We are going to do the things you suggest, I hope, and I would be pleased to call on you for further advice and guidance in due course.” - GW, Stranraer

Investigations of Causes of Damp in Listed Houses

“You gave such clear and sane advice, Hugh, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it.” - RL, Berwickshire

Exemption from Requirement to Obtain Listed Building Consent

“Hugh, this is fantastic news! Thank you for your hard work to get this arranged.” - SN, Historic England, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Subsidence Claim & Repair at Listed Country House

“Can I please thank you for your overall help to a successful conclusion.” - R W-F, Lycetts