No1 Smithery at Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent recently underwent a £13m restoration and is now a living museum showcasing a range of unique maritime artefacts. Hochiki Europe’s innovative fire detection products have been installed throughout the building to protect these national treasures
In early 2009 No1 Smithery at Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent was on English Heritage's at risk register. Now, thanks to a joint project between The Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, The National Maritime Museum and The Imperial War Museum, the building has been transformed and opened to the public as a living museum honouring Britain’s rich maritime history.
History in the making
By the reign of Elizabeth I the River Medway at Chatham had become England's principal fleet base with the majority of the Queen's ships overwintering in the river. One of the most famous ships in the world was also built at the site with the order for the HMS Victory to be constructed signed on the 7th July 1759.
However, when the dockyard finally closed in 1984 the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust faced the unenviable task of repairing, preserving and restoring the buildings, all of which were in urgent need of repair.
To the rescue
The trustees knew it was going to be a tough task to find the £13m
needed to restore No1 Smithery to its former glory.
Just when it seemed that all hope was lost, it transpired that crates full of maritime treasures were gathering dust in storage at The National Maritime Museum and The Imperial War Museum in London due to a lack of space. With the space available at No1 Smithery, the 4,000m² area was an ideal place to house them.
Museum piece
Kent based fire detection specialist, CTA Fire, has worked in and around the Dockyard for many years. David Rooney, CTA’s Managing Director, says: “We became involved early on in the development of No1 Smithery after being approached by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and the original electrical contractor on the project.”
However, the project hit a major snag shortly after work started in August 2009 when the original builder experienced financial difficulties. Once the issues were resolved, CTA successfully submitted another tender and started work under MJ Lonsdale.
The building required the installation of a BS5839 compliant category L1/P1 addressable fire detection system. An L1 system is designed for the protection of life and deploys automatic detectors throughout all areas of the building – including roof spaces and voids. This type of fire detection system gives the earliest possible warning of fire and makes sure that there is sufficient time for escape. The system also had to be P1 compliant in order to protect the fabric of the building and summon the fire services in the early stages of a fire.
David Rooney explains: “I have used Hochiki’s products consistently over the last 20 years and I had no hesitation in recommending their use in No1 Smithery. Hochiki provides solutions that are reliable, innovative and backed-up with a superb support service.”
Smart thinking
CTA Fire selected an intelligent analogue addressable system based around Hochiki’s Enhanced Systems Protocol (ESP).
Stuart Davies, Hochiki’s Marketing Manager, explains: “ESP is a total communications solution for intelligent fire detection and fully integrated systems. ESP has a multi-purpose structure that provides the flexibility and expansion to accommodate simple addressable systems through to sophisticated integrated building management and safety systems.”
The installation used a wide variety of Hochiki’s base sounders, sensors and call points as well as 15 sets of beam detectors at the top of the building. These products are particularly suitable for large open spaces and for heights way above the operating limits of conventional smoke detectors.
Sean Knight, CTA’s Senior Engineer and Project Manager, comments: “We had to go above and beyond the original brief on a number of occasions, most notably when working in the repositories which, due to the nature of what’s kept there, are environmentally sealed to control temperature and humidity. Here we had to fully redesign the air sampling network for the aspirating fire detection system installed in this area.”
All in one
Unwanted and false alarms can be hugely disruptive in any type of building but in public buildings like museums they are particularly unwelcome.
To address this, ESP multi-sensors were used extensively in order to limit the potential for unwanted alarms. Sean Knight explains: “Within a museum environment there are many different materials and within one room – there can be some artefacts which will produce fast spreading flame, while others will give off a high level of smoke. Using a multi-sensor caters for all possible eventualities and offers a degree of flexibility as, when necessary, the algorithms in the devices can be adjusted to make them less prone to unwanted alarms.”
CTA also had to make sure that as little of the fire detection system as possible would be visible to the public. Sean Knight and his team mounted all the detectors and sounders in a way that made them as inconspicuous as possible, and installed all the controllers for the beam detectors at low level and accessible to engineers in the non-public areas.
Treasure trove
The installation went incredibly smoothly and No1 Smithery was opened to the public at the end of July 2010 as a state-of-the-art cultural venue where visitors can find out how ships were made and marvel at the collections. David Rooney concludes: “No1 Smithery represents one more in a long line of successful Hochiki ESP installations by CTA and we are delighted to have played a part in giving such a historic building a new lease of life.”
For further information please contact Hochiki Europe on 01634 266566, email: emarketing@hochikieurope.com or visit www.hochikieurope.com.