Museum of London

OFR provided support to the Museum of London in their once-in-a-generation opportunity to reconceive what the Museum of London can be by developing a bespoke fire strategy that allows the repurposing of the atmospheric but currently dilapidated Smithfield market buildings to create dynamic and flexible exhibition space and world class learning centre.

The Museum of London needs for fire safety advice have been wide ranging, spanning Building Regulations compliance, property and asset protection and operational management. We have listened and consulted with the project stakeholders to fully understand the design and operational aspirations for the development, and facilitated these through risk analysis, imaginative and innovative fire engineering techniques, and proactive engagement with and negotiations with approvals authorities to produce a robust fire strategy that is sensitive  to the buildings existing heritage listed architecture, provides operational flexibility, is inclusive.

Key elements supported by the fire strategy include:

Inclusion of evacuation lifts to facilitate the evacuation of mobility impaired occupants from the subterranean exhibition spaces.

Protection of valuable assets using bespoke suppression technologies.

Enabled opened connections between the lower ground floors and the upper levels to facilitate between visual connectively between the various exhibition levels.

Risk analysis supporting the use of the existing cast iron columns without the need for applied fire protection preserving the aesthetic and historical quality of the building.

Through operator engagement tailored the suite of fire safety protection measures so that they provided so that they are directly applicable to the end user requirements.

OFR have also been involved with MoL to develop retrospective fire strategies and fire risk assessments for their 2 museum sites at London Wall and Docklands, and their storage facility in Islington.