diff --git a/websocketpp/base64/base64.hpp b/websocketpp/base64/base64.hpp
index e0e9c4e78d..6572c49574 100644
--- a/websocketpp/base64/base64.hpp
+++ b/websocketpp/base64/base64.hpp
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@
 
 #include <string>
 
-static const std::string base64_chars =
+namespace websocketpp {
+
+static std::string const base64_chars =
              "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
              "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
              "0123456789+/";
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ static inline bool is_base64(unsigned char c) {
            (c >= 97 && c <= 122)); // a-z
 }
 
-inline std::string base64_encode(unsigned char const* bytes_to_encode, unsigned
+inline std::string base64_encode(unsigned char const * bytes_to_encode, unsigned
     int in_len)
 {
     std::string ret;
@@ -100,11 +102,11 @@ inline std::string base64_encode(unsigned char const* bytes_to_encode, unsigned
   return ret;
 }
 
-inline std::string base64_encode(const std::string & data) {
+inline std::string base64_encode(std::string const & data) {
     return base64_encode(reinterpret_cast<const unsigned char *>(data.data()),data.size());
 }
 
-inline std::string base64_decode(std::string const& encoded_string) {
+inline std::string base64_decode(std::string const & encoded_string) {
     size_t in_len = encoded_string.size();
     int i = 0;
     int j = 0;
@@ -149,4 +151,6 @@ inline std::string base64_decode(std::string const& encoded_string) {
     return ret;
 }
 
+} // namespace websocketpp
+
 #endif // _BASE64_HPP_