Project Summary

Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

Historic Buildings draw hundreds of thousands of guests every single year, often boosting the local economy. With such a wide range of purpose, definition and status, there truly is something for everybody hidden away in such buildings across the nation. However, due to the nature of the buildings, they carry certain fire risks that wouldn’t necessarily be considered today. Older methods of building and fewer building regulations meant less control over certain aspects of development.

We were approached by one of the UK’s largest fire and security companies to provide a solution for a particular area of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. In one of the unused areas of the palace, the owners decided to make use of the available space and store large amounts of costume pieces across a series of rooms. Whilst this was an effective use of the space, this opened up the area to a much higher risk of fire, given the nature of the costumes.

Our engineering team completed a survey to understand the nature of the risk, and to understand any limitations on installing a system in the listed areas of the palace. It is important when completing a system design to fully understand the nature of the building and to ensure that, in projects such as this, that there is no interference with the original building or plan.