The event, on April 16, marked the start of a vital part in the second stage of redeveloping the company's Bond Street base, which is set to transform their traditional home by the end of next year to create a state-of-the-art international saleroom complex.
This latest work will establish a metre-thick slab across the site - essential to the entire scheme as it will form a vital part of the foundations and bulwark to vibration, with the Crossrail tunnels running just four metres below.
Having one of Europe's biggest construction projects just underneath your own ongoing development - with two grout shafts bordering the site at the surface - may seem enough to contend with, but the builders, architects and engineers have also been restricted by the surrounding buildings, a single narrow access point and all kinds of regulations, ranging from the 'right to light' of surrounding windows to building in a conservation area.
Bonhams have also been faced with keeping their daily business up and running, transferring staff and sales from the main Bond Street complex to the newly refurbished Blenstock House next door so that the phase two demolition could go ahead.
Ironically, all this has taken place in what seems to have been their most successful sales period ever, culminating in the autumn Asian art series. The resulting building site, shown here, is the result.
Mr Brooks told ATG that the entire project was well on schedule and that the concrete slab should be ready by October - the deadline for that stage forced on Bonhams by the Crossrail development.
The entire scheme is due to be completed by December next year.
