BLACKSMITH brothers Kieren and Kyle Roberts, who are based on Exmoor, have been commissioned to work on the restoration of the Crystal Palace Subway, in London.

The brothers run the award-winning West Country Blacksmiths, at Allerford Forge, and have also recently helped on a large-scale restoration in the Palace Theatre, Swansea, where they removed, restored, and reinstalled original cast iron balustrades for two upper levels of the auditorium.

Now, they have been asked to produce and install four pairs of gates and 525 feet of handrails as part of the reconstruction of the Grade II* Victorian Crystal Palace Subway.

The Crystal Palace Subway was built in 1865 as a gateway entrance to the high level station and was originally constructed for first class passengers.

A fire in 1936 destroyed the high level station and elements of the subway station, and for the past 10 years the site has remained virtually abandoned.

The £3.2 million restoration project will see the rebuilding of the existing subway structure.

Kieren Roberts said: “We are proud to have been invited to work at this well-known landmark.

“All metalwork will be made in our forge and installed in London over a six-week period.

“Regardless of where our works takes us, our heart and base will always be in West Somerset, our day-to-day works at the forge will not be affected.

“We very much welcome all local works from minor repairs to large scale metalwork projects.”

West Country Blacksmiths is due to complete the gates and handrails by the end of November.

The Palace Theatre project required the craftsmen to use a wide variety of their skills, including 3D surveying and modelling the shape of each balcony, CAD design works, delicately remove and record each balustrade, restore and repair the cast balustrades, recast missing balustrades, fabricate replacement handrails and core rail to the required shape, and on-site work to install the near-200 balustrades.

The 135-year-old grade two listed theatre once hosted stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Morecambe and Wise, and Sir Anthony Hopkins, but had been derelict for a long time after falling into disrepair.

The theatre, which hosted more than 900 people in it six-storey flatiron-shaped structure, was brought by Swansea Council after it secured nearly £5 million funding to totally restore the building.

Work on building began last Autumn and is due to be completed by the spring of 2024.

The building is being developed to create modern workspaces for young and growing businesses, especially in the tech, digital, and creative sector, as well as community and retail spaces.

The blacksmiths will return to the Palace Theatre later this year to install traditional cast iron guttering and undertake further restoration work on other original features.