The towering problem of Pisa

3:49pm Monday 24th September 2007

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St John's Church, Isleworth is to host an unusual illustrated talk, about the saving of the iconic leaning tower of Pisa The guest speaker is British expert Professor John Burland CBE, the only UK citizen to be called to join the Italian Prime Minister's rescue commission for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Professor Burland CBE will take the audience on an entertaining journey through the highs, the lows, the difficulty and the drama of this unique and high profile engineering challenge as they battled to save the tower from collapse.

Speaking about the forthcoming talk, which will be on October 5 at 8pm Professor Burland said: "Imagine a tower founded on jelly and about to fall over, with masonry so fragile it could explode at any moment.

"Add to this the problems of working with Italian bureaucracy and a host of academic primadonas' and it's clear why stabilising the Leaning Tower of Pisa represented the ultimate engineering challenge."

Professor Burland, whose son is an Isleworth resident and parishioner of St John's, hopes that his fascinating talk will help to raise funds to finance the work of St John's Church.

Tickets for the event are priced £5 (£3 concessions) including a glass of wine - please call 07881 923598 to make bookings.

The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session and refreshments.