ASWS Supports Glasshouse Street Christmas Charity Collection For The Whitechapel Mission

Associated Steel Window Services (ASWS), a leading specialist in heritage fenestration and architectural metalwork, proudly supported the Glasshouse Street Christmas Charity Collection for The Whitechapel Mission, joining forces with BAM and fellow subcontractors to make a meaningful difference this festive season.

Pictured left is ASWS’ Site Manager Jono helping deliver their donations to The Whitechapel Mission over the Christmas period, while right is just some of the generous donations received.

The Whitechapel Mission provides vital services to the homeless, including food, showering facilities, clothing, advice, and retraining programmes. In 2024, the charity helped over 11,287 people and served 150,426 meals. This year, demand has surged by an astonishing 25%, making community support more critical than ever.

Through collective generosity and teamwork, the Glasshouse Street project gathered an impressive haul of donations – valued at approximately £2,600 – including food, toiletries, and clothing. Guided by the charity’s published “Desperate Needs” list, contributions ranged from 40 boxes of cereal and 92 tins of beans to 50 deodorants, ensuring essential items reached those most in need.

The Whitechapel Mission expressed heartfelt gratitude for the effort and impact of the collection. ASWS extends thanks to BAM for organising this fantastic initiative and to all involved, including ASME Engineering, FACE Brickwork, Getjar, GKR, Kendell, Madigan Gill, Silver Blaze, and Stortford Interiors, for their outstanding support. For more information on ASWS and its heritage restoration services, visit asws.co.uk.

SWA Member Shines In Heritage Refurbishment Project At Woolwich Arsenal

Steel Window Association member, Associated Steel Window Services, is a long-established member of the Steel Window Association and expert in the repair of metal windows, from the earliest wrought iron examples through to contemporary curtain walling. ASWS also undertakes full restoration works to timber windows and doors, architectural metalwork, specialist glazing, bronze windows and shopfronts.

Members of the Steel Window Association together offer a UK wide service for the repair and replacement of various types of old metal windows, doors and screens, as well as being able to manufacture new fenestration which fully meets the requirements of building regulations.

A recent project at The Woolwich Arsenal is a prime example of the SWA’s skills in bringing historic buildings back to life. Aside from converted and new-build residential properties, the huge site has also seen numerous businesses and social enterprises established, including Woolwich Works, a creative quarter for the arts which includes spaces such as The Firework Factory, The Laboratory and The Cartridge Factory. 

While recent decades have seen the site transformed from a near derelict munitions factory to become one of south London’s most iconic redevelopments, restoration and repurposing work continue apace, with a completed contract involving steel window specialist, ASWS, highlighting both the challenges and the opportunities the complexity of the buildings can present.  

Within Buildings 19 and 41, ASWS was tasked with refurbishing over a dozen large steel windows, including 10 with semi-circular heads, and the removal of three others where the openings were to be blocked up or replaced by new doors.  While the company’s operatives are well experienced at demounting very old windows without damage, these posed a particular challenge in that the outer frames had been deeply recessed into the brickwork to help withstand a possible explosion, from inside or outside, with the history of the building and its location.

The 12 windows measuring 2,400mm high by 1,500mm were removed to the London premises of ASWS for careful grit-blasting and the replacement of many heavily corroded sections.    This reuse rather than the building industry’s default of recycling old metal offered the client significant cost savings and helped maintain the integrity of a truly historic complex which dates back to the end of the 17th century. For further information on the Steel Window Association, please visit www.steel-window-association.co.uk or call 020 3475 8049.

A Window Onto SWA Refurbishment Project Winner 2025, Associated Steel Window Services

At the 2025 Steel Window Association awards, the Refurbishment Project winner was named as Associated Steel Window Services (ASWS) for the work on the Empress building at 35 Dover Street, Mayfair.

Kris Bennell, Operations Director of Associated Steel Window Services and President of the SWA, shares insights into the company.

Pictured are Laura Mercer, Managing Director, and Kris Bennell, Operations Director, of ASWS

How long has Associated Steel Window Services been in business? 

ASWS is a family-managed business now into its third generation and 58^th year as a specialist steel window refurbishment and replacement company. The company has evolved since 1960 and is now a leading company in the steel window, and wider fenestration refurbishment, industry.  

What is your core business?

ASWS is a heritage window and door refurbishment contractor, specialising in works on large scale construction projects throughout the UK. In recent times, we have worked on prestigious projects including the Ikea Development at 214 Oxford Street, Battersea Power Station, County Hall, The Whiteley, BBC Bush House and Hackney Town Hall – among others. As a company, we can help with any requirements you have involving windows; examples are condition surveys, enabling, refurbishment, replacement, servicing, maintenance or reglazing.

What are the target markets for Associated Steel Window Services - architect, designer, property owner, managing agent and others?

We are predominantly a commercial business focusing on the large to mid-scale construction sites across London and the South. We undertake most of our work directly for architects, clients and Tier 1, 2 and 3 main contractors. We specialise in refurbishment and heritage projects, and have taken on some of the largest and most demanding projects in the UK, in the last decade.

How long has the company been a member of the Steel Window Association? And why?

We joined the SWA in the late 1980’s as it was such a widely regarded association of experts by architects, main contractors and the specifiers. We wanted to be recognised as the best of the best and, to be a member of the SWA, meant just that. In that sense, not much has changed for the association but that’s a good thing, I think. We are still a collective of experts in our fields, whether that be the manufacture, refurbishment or surveying of fenestration.

What sets Associated Steel Window Services apart? What do you see as a competitive advantage you offer that other companies do not?

I think it’s our passion for the work, our drive to succeed and our wealth of family knowledge. Being a third-generation business, this isn’t just what we do Monday to Friday; it’s our life. It may sound odd, but I grew up hearing about windows, hearing about the current projects. It was something I saw my parents love and something I couldn’t wait to get involved in.

Key projects you would like to mention?

I think we have been very lucky to not only work on some of the most significant historical buildings in London over the years, such as BBC Bush House (the former headquarters of BBC World Service), 214 Oxford Street, Hackney Town Hall, County Hall, the Royal Academy of Arts, but we have also worked on some of the biggest projects in the UK and even Europe in the last five years. These projects include Battersea Power Station refurbishment, Olympia, London and The Whiteley. Such projects have greatly increased our skill and ability to work with the biggest and the best main contractors.

What do you see as the biggest challenges to the steel window industry in the UK today?

I think it’s no secret to anyone in construction that, traditionally, steel’s biggest weakness has been seen as thermal performance. Yet we have seen such great development, from within the industry and particularly the SWA, over the last decade to keep up with regulation changes that we are able to really challenge this traditional misconception. With WERS and DERS testing, real advancement in glazing technology and performance, and the ability to retrofit all of this to refurbished windows, is allowing us to very much keep in touch with the modernisation of fenestration across the UK.

Pictured is County Hall, London which was built in 1922 where ASWS has restored and refurbished the architectural steelwork for over 30 years.

What are the company's top priorities over the next few years?

Keeping steel at the forefront of historic buildings across the UK. It’s what we love, it’s what we know and it’s who we are. We, as a business, are developing to help building management companies, clients, architects and main contactors work, plan and execute heritage projects across the UK from inception to completion. We are able to offer services throughout, with condition surveys, tendering, all elements of steel (and timber) window refurbishment as well as the planning and heritage consultation we can advise on.

One of our most frequent compliments is the way we help to manage heritage, planning and site works. A Site Director recently said that “working on a listed building of this importance means you are not just confronted with all of the problems from the past, but also those lying in the present. With regards to the heritage aspects to the façade and the restoration of the different window types, it was the Crown Estates representative who attended site for regular monthly reviews.  He was definitely very happy with the way that the work was conducted and completed by ASWS.” 

How long has your oldest member of staff been working at Associated Steel Window Services? What makes an employee want to stay with the company?  Any other key members?

Last year, we took Rob Ackland and his family out to dinner in County Hall, to celebrate his 30^th anniversary with us! We chose County Hall because it was Rob’s first project with us in 1994 and he has been on every single contract there since; in 2015, 2019, 2023 and 2024. We are a family-run business, and the family extends to all our staff.

We regularly have days out, celebrations of end of projects and we are always willing to listen and learn about how we can make the working experience of our team better. My dad has always said that, in business, “you are only ever as good as your last job”, and the people doing those jobs are people like Rob and our team. Without them, we would not be the business we are and that’s at the core of our thinking and it will remain like that for what I hope will be many generations to come.  For further information on the Steel Window Association or if you’re interested in becoming a member, please visit www.steel-window-association.co.uk