The mere mention of the name Bansky, the graffiti artist whose identity has provoked fevered speculation, is enough to cause excitement. Imagine then, what it must be like to get up close and personal with his work. That’s exactly what staff at Carlisle’s Fine Art Restoration Company do on a regular basis. In fact, they’re the go-to for Banksy conservation. 

“As Banksy’s profile has grown, we have, by accident rather than design, become the only specialist really in the world,” says company founder and director Chris Bull. “We’ve restored a lot of Banksys and we continue to do so and work on these for private individuals, institutions, museums and collectors. There are very defining tells, as it were, to his work – to the point where you can tell that something isn’t by his hand. The way he cuts his stencils, that kind of thing. There’s a definite flow to them.” 

Chris ended up running the company by default. “Back in 2005, I think, my wife Anna and I bought Edwin Talbot & Co, a retail art, framing and restoration business in Carlisle,” he says. “It sold artwork, it did framing and, occasionally, a little bit of restoration of paintings. For the first couple of years there wasn’t really much happening with the restoration side of things, then, about 2006-2007, we started getting more inquiries. We started focusing on that side of the business and randomly grew a small, part-time arm into a much bigger concern that now employs 25 people in Carlisle.” 

In Cumbria:

As well as street art and paintings, the company preserves and restores everything from furniture to sculptures. It has recently relocated from its city centre base to Kingmoor Park, increasing the workforce by 50 per cent. “We’ve expanded in terms of our premises, our staff and our offering of services,” says Chris. “Our studio space has increased from 500 square feet to over 12,500 square feet. We’ve expanded our offering for furniture restoration and conservation and also textiles and upholstery. Our sales have been growing steadily by about 30 per cent a year, which is nice. In the last seven years, we’ve increased our turnover by nearly 500 per cent. We’ve had an increase in international consignments of 30 per cent year on year for the past five years.” 

In addition to the main premises in Cumbria, there’s a ‘shop window’ in London’s Belgravia. “We’ve always done a lot of business in London and we had a small office there for a number of years,” says Chris. “In 2019, we opened retail premises. Most of the work that we do is done from studios – effectively big units. You wouldn’t know we were here. We believe that what we do is quite interesting and people want to learn about it, so we opened a conservation studio that’s more retail-based. 

“Essentially, our business is the real version of The Repair Shop so we do all the things they do on that show. The thing that’s really interesting is that we’ve got a similar high level of emotional involvement. There’s a lot of people that want to conserve things because they’re valuable, then there’s a lot of people who want to restore things because they’re sentimentally valuable, so it doesn’t make a lot of economic sense.” 

With the business being so niche, recruitment can be a challenge. “The conservators and restorers that work here are incredibly skilled – the majority of them are educated to masters or degree level and they’ve spent a lot of time honing their skills,” says Chris. “When we advertise roles, we advertise them internationally because of the nature of the specialisms. At the moment, we’re recruiting a new ceramics conservator. We can’t find somebody in the UK with the relevant skill to do that job so we’re looking at bringing somebody in from Australia.” 

In Cumbria:

With 80 per cent of its work in London and the South East, the company often ferries pieces up North. “We’re the only restoration and conservation company in the country that runs its own in-house transport team,” says Chris. “Each week, we travel the entire country collecting items.” 

Clients include the BBC, the Royal College of Nursing and the National Trust, along with collectors, estate owners and insurance companies. “If you have a fire or a flood we would take all the contents from your home and restore them for you and bring them back,” says Chris. There’s even the odd celebrity. “In the last year or two we’ve worked for Jonathan Ross and Richard Hammond – quite a few celebrities, so that’s quite nice.” 

With the cost-of-living crisis, you might question why people are investing in non-essentials but, for Chris, they transcend the aesthetic. “There’s something about artwork and antiques and collectables that can motivate a great deal of emotional connection and memory,” he says. “People are really prepared to invest time, energy and money in preserving those memories.”