Members of Cliveden Conservation were invited to an informal reception at St Olave Hart Street to mark the successful conservation and installation of the Capponi ledger stone on 27th November 2025.
Piero Capponi, a Florentine patrician exiled for plotting against the Medici, worked for Elizabeth I’s spymaster Francis Walsingham, who lived opposite St Olave’s church.Capponi died of plague in 1582 and was buried at the church. After his death, his friend Peter Landi commissioned a tomb with an effigy and a simple ledger stone with the Capponi family shield, which was laid over his burial place. It remained there for nearly four centuries until the church was badly damaged by enemy bombing in 1941. During the subsequent salvage and restoration work, the stone was moved to the churchyard and its link to Capponi was lost.
In 2025, Cliveden Conservation was commissioned to clean and reassemble the recovered fragmented stone, reinstalling it in the church close to its original location. The restoration was made possible by the St Olave Hart Street Fabric Trust and generous donors.
At the reception, Albert Traby and Ana Logreira from Cliveden Conservations received thanks on behalf of the project team for the conservation and installation of the ledger stone. Albert undertook the conservation and installation work alongside Alex Ricket (moulding, casting and installation) and Paula Rosser (painting the plaster cast).
In a follow-up letter, Penny Ritchie Calder, Churchwarden of St Olave Hart Street, acknowledged the skill and attention to detail demonstrated during each stage of the project and the outstanding quality of the finished work:
“We are very grateful for the professional advice and expertise you brought to what was, for us, a new and significant undertaking. The creation of the plaster cast replica of the reverse of the stone is of particular note: the colour match has been done so well and it provides an invaluable record, ensuring that both sides of this important artefact are preserved for generations to come.
We are delighted that the restored ledger stone and the reverse side are now in place in the north chapel opposite the Capponi monument, a testament to both our church’s rich heritage and to your team’s remarkable craftsmanship.”