Swindon, United Kingdom (30th August, 2012) – Bruynzeel, a leading manufacturer of storage solutions for organisations in various sectors and industries, have helped to preserve The Savoy Hotel’s heritage by providing storage solutions for the establishment’s new archives.
As part of The Savoy’s recent £220 million restoration, the building’s comprehensive archives of valuable artefacts required safe storage in order to preserve this building’s unique heritage.
Although the new BSI PD 5454:2012 standards for the storage and exhibition of archival materials did not apply to The Savoy, the establishment nonetheless followed the new guidelines as part of efforts to re-organise its archives more efficiently.
The archives were relocated off-site in 2007 to a temporary storage facility, and it wasn’t until the project was well underway that the new location was identified in what was previously a storeroom on the lower-ground floor of a building being used as temporary office space.
The storage requirements included open shelving and racking for items to be easily accessible, and diverse-sized shelving to accommodate materials of various shapes and sizes.
After detailed estimates and plans were submitted to The Savoy’s Technical Services Department, in 2009 Bruynzeel’s Compactus® mobile shelving system was selected as the establishment’s new archive storage solution.
A spokesperson for Bruynzeel commented: “When work started in March 2012, we installed new flooring to accommodate a manually operated mobile shelving solution within five weeks.
“The new shelving consisted of three independent Compactus® blocks, 2.4m high fitted with, on average, seven 390mm deep shelves per bay. In addition, deeper bays were provided to accommodate plan chest media and large volumes of newspaper press cuttings.”
Archivist Susan Scott hails Bruynzeel’s solution as responsible for completely transforming the way she can access and manage The Savoy’s records and artefacts.
She commented: “Our unique heritage is fundamental to how The Savoy presents itself today, and our archives are a vital part of preserving this.
“The new system is incredibly light and easy to operate, and I can quickly and easily re-configure shelving to fit new items, whatever their size and shape. The additional space we now have means I can display items that may have been forgotten; cataloguing and access is faster and more efficient; and I’ve now got space to accommodate new materials as we accumulate them.”
A spokesperson for Bruynzeel concluded: “We are delighted to see that the Compactus® system has had such a positive impact on The Savoy’s new archiving initiative. We hope to provide further assistance to The Savoy and other iconic historic establishments in the future.”
For more information on Brunyzeel’s storage solutions, please visit their website at http://www.bruynzeel.co.uk/ or call 0800 220 989.
About Bruynzeel:
Bruynzeel is a member of the Constructor Group UK Limited, and specialises in developing storage solutions for offices, archives, libraries and repositories at government institutions, museums, universities, libraries, financial organisations and healthcare organisations. Bruynzeel provides Sysco shelving and cabinets, Compactus mobile shelving and mobile cabinets, and flexible and space saving filing and storage solutions: from the simple to the highly complex, for multinationals as well as local businesses.
Contact:
Constructor Group UK Limited
Murdock Road, Dorcan
Swindon, Wiltshire, UK
Zip: SN3 5HY
Tel: 0800 220 989
Email: enquiries@bruynzeel.co.uk
