Cleaning the Banqueting Room Curtains
In January, the Conservation team undertook the challenge of cleaning the Banqueting Room curtains in the Royal Pavilion. This meant relocating all the objects on the east side, moving the visitor route, and building a scaffold tower to allow us to access the curtains, which have not been cleaned for several years.
In the image below you can see the Conservation team moving a marble topped table usually covered by a white tablecloth. A slider was used to make it easier to move, while also limiting any damage to the floor.

The curtains are replicas but are still made of delicate silk, which meant we had to be careful when handling them. There was slight damage, such as loose threads and fraying, we did not want to exacerbate during the cleaning process.

The scaffold we used was six metres tall. It gave us an excellent view of the banqueting room, the high up details not usually appreciated from the ground, the curtains, and all the dust accumulated on them! Working at height with equipment means that all tools must be secured to the scaffold itself for the safety of those using them and that of anyone or anything below.
Most importantly the scaffold allowed us to examine the condition of the curtains. We knew that there was lots of dust on the swags but seeing it up close showed how much had collected over the years. We took note of which parts of the curtains were most affected and were on the lookout for signs of deterioration such as light damage, pest damage or evidence of mould. As we did not find anything unexpected or overly concerning, we proceeded with cleaning.
To clean textiles we use vacuum cleaners on low suction. These are fitted with an attachment and a gauze over the opening. This interrupts the force of the vacuum cleaner and ensures any stray threads or loosely attached details do not become lost in the vacuum.
The curtains themselves were very heavy and cleaning the underside required one or two people to hold them up and support the heavy swag. Another would gently move the gauze-covered vacuum over the surface of the curtains in the direction of the thread grain. We also use natural-hair bristle brushes to gently brush clean any areas which are too fragile to use the vacuum directly on the fabric. We instead sweep the dust into the vacuum held about 5cm away from the fabric. Due to the dust, we had to always wear masks.





The scaffold was too large to fit between the smaller chandeliers and the wall so to access the ends of the curtains we used the genie (which is a mobile elevated work platform) to clean these cascades and swags.
After the work on the swags and cascades were finished, we were able to work on the lower parts of the drops from a ladder and complete the finishing touches from the floor.
The lack of objects also gave us a chance to clean the tall mirrors on the east side as well.




Here is a before and after of the end swags, can you see a difference?


