Historic England asked us to look at their offices in Newcastle and York to recommend works to improve fire safety within these listed buildings.
Bessie Surtees House in Newcastle is an amalgam of three historic buildings on the river front, the oldest dating from 1465 (the late medieval period). Timber framed, five storeys high and jettied out over the street, the building presents a significant challenge in terms of modern regulations. Smith & Garratt’s survey resulted in improved compartmentation between two main staircases and upgrading the alarm to an L1 system. To prevent damage to the building by cutting chases to install pyro cables, much of the new alarm system is wireless. The improvements have been made under an exemption from the need for listed building consent.
At the York office in Tanner Row we found partition walls to the escape stair were out of alignment across all five floors, unprotected doors opened onto the escape stair, open access to corridors behind and ill-fitting fire doors with gaps beneath – which could aid the spread of smoke and flames. Smith & Garratt proposed realignment of partitions and fire doors, installation of smoke curtains, an automatic smoke vent above the stair, improved intumescent fire-stops and upgrading the alarm to an L1 fire detection system. Listed building consent and building standards approval have been obtained, opening the way forward to get the works done.
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Smith & Garratt have acknowledged expertise with heritage property, regularly working on listed buildings and Scheduled Monuments. See some of our previous work.
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