Long Curtain Moat in Southsea undergoes 'fantastic' steam clean

The works, which were approved by Historic England, have removed staining from the moat's inner walls - bringing them close to their original white colour.

Initially cleaning was only intended for the southern moat wall ready for sea defence works.

Work on £100m sea defences in Southsea begins

Councillor Steve Pitt, Portsmouth City Council’s culture boss, said: ‘Cleaning was initially only going to be undertaken along the southern moat wall as preparation for heritage maintenance works.

‘However, once we saw the fantastic results from cleaning a trial area, it was decided to continue along the remainder of the moat walls to enhance the area visually for the benefit of our community.’

The works were undertaken by a single steam cleaning vessel with two hose attachments. Pontoons were used to navigate workers within the moat.

Rupert Teasdale, project manager for the Southsea Coastal Scheme added: ‘To have enough pressure to remove any stains, the hoses had to be held quite close to the wall because each strip of stone that we cleaned was approximately the width of a smartphone.

‘So it's safe to say that this work has been time consuming and intricate - but definitely worth it for the final result.’

The works were undertaken as part of the Portsmouth City Council's £100m Southsea Coastal Scheme for which work has recently started.

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