Rising elegantly at the centre of the newly pedestrianised Strand Aldwych, St Mary le Strand is a jewel of English Baroque architecture. Designed by James Gibbs and consecrated in 1724, the Grade I listed church has stood for three centuries as both a place of worship and a work of art. Once marooned on a traffic island, it's now a cultural focal point once again framed by Somerset House, King's College London, and Bush House, and surrounded by a public plaza that finally allows Londoners to stop and admire it up close.

Today, St Mary le Strand is undergoing a major restoration under the "Jewel in the Strand" initiative an ambitious £5.5 million project to safeguard the building and reimagine its role for future generations. Supported by Westminster City Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the church's own congregation, the restoration will repair its historic fabric, enhance accessibility, and transform it into a community space for art, reflection, and connection.

To celebrate the church's 300th anniversary and draw attention to its ongoing renewal, Create London working in partnership with Westminster Council and David Chipperfield Architects commissioned a public artwork unlike any other: a vast, printed scaffold wrap to cover the south façade during renovation. The result would turn temporary scaffolding into a statement of beauty, creativity, and reverence for history.

Embrace Building Wraps was appointed to deliver this technically demanding and visually spectacular installation. The brief was clear but challenging: to produce and install a monumental, printed scaffold wrap that would transform the south elevation into an artwork celebrating both the church's past and its ongoing rebirth.

The artwork, titled "Decades", was created by Manchester-based artist Louise Giovanelli in collaboration with David Chipperfield Architects. Her trompe l'oeil design a soft, shimmering drape inspired by Renaissance painted fabrics – plays on the relationship between concealment and revelation. It nods to the centuries of soot and grime that once stained the church's columns, a subtle commentary on time, pollution, and rebirth.

For Embrace, this was about more than print. It was about precision, craftsmanship, and respect, for the artwork, for the building, and for the public space that surrounds it. The project demanded exact colour fidelity, precise alignment with six arched bays, third party integrated lighting, and ongoing public access throughout. The installation had to be stunning by day and magical by night, all while maintaining the highest safety and conservation standards.

Embrace brought together its full range of in-house expertise, design engineering, large-format printing, and specialist installation to turn the concept into reality.

The wrap itself was digitally printed on mesh PVC, selected for its durability, translucency, and fire rating. This material allowed daylight to filter through, ensuring the church's windows remained illuminated even while the façade was covered. To achieve the soft illusion of a draped curtain, Embrace conducted full-scale print tests off-site to perfect tone, texture, and the depth of shadow that gives Decades its signature shimmer.

Once the artwork was finalised, the panels measuring approximately 30 metres wide by 16 metres high, with two large 5 meter side returns were printed using high-resolution UV inks and then heat-welded for strength. Precision was vital: The single piece wrap had to align seamlessly with the church's architecture, including six arched cut-outs that invited the public to peer through and glimpse the stonework beyond.

To mount the wrap, Embrace installed and engineered bespoke offset frame that projected the mesh slightly forward of the scaffold with Benchmark Scaffolding ensuring a smooth, taut surface without damaging the historic façade. The substructure incorporated six inset subframes, each shaped to follow the arches. "Ever tried bending standard 50mm scaffold tube into an arch?" smiles Greg Forster, Managing Director at Embrace. "It's no mean feat – but that's what makes projects like this so rewarding. The illusion had to be perfect, and every curve had to fit exactly."

Eighteen LED floodlights were installed to illuminate the wrap from front and rear, creating a glowing veil of light after dark and a subtle, sculptural presence by day. At pavement level, an access flap secured by industrial-grade Velcro allowed safe entry to the crypt beneath the church – a simple, practical detail that maintained both aesthetics and functionality.

Sustainability, too, was central. Once the artwork's display period concludes, the mesh wrap will enter Embrace's recycling scheme, where it will be repurposed within the UK as part of the company's waste-to-energy and reuse initiatives. Previous wraps have been transformed into traffic bollards and protective membranes, and this one will follow suit. In addition, Embrace continues to support global reforestation through its tree-planting programme, which has now surpassed 19,000 new trees planted worldwide.

The finished installation is nothing short of breathtaking. From the opposite pavement, St Mary le Strand appears cloaked in a celestial curtain a delicate play of light, texture, and translucency that both conceals and celebrates its historic form. By day, passersby see the soft illusion of fabric folding over stone; by night, the illuminated mesh glows gently, turning the church into a luminous beacon at the heart of the Strand.

Beyond its beauty, the project demonstrates how temporary installations can engage the public with heritage in a contemporary way. What might otherwise have been an unremarkable stretch of scaffold became an artwork that drew Londoners and visitors alike into conversation about architecture, art, and renewal.

"Projects like this are why we love what we do," says Greg Forster, Managing Director of Embrace Building Wraps. "It's not just about covering scaffolding it's about transforming spaces, protecting history, and creating moments of wonder. Our team took something complex, technically demanding, and heritage-sensitive, and turned it into something people stop to admire. That's the magic of a great building wrap."

Delivered on time and within budget, the St Mary le Strand project showcases the best of Embrace's expertise: technical excellence, creative collaboration, and environmental responsibility. It stands as a powerful example of how printed building wraps can enhance restoration projects protecting heritage, inspiring the public, and bringing stories to life in the heart of our cities.