Heritage properties present some of the most complex and challenging fire safety environments of any building type.
Their age, construction, layout, and the irreplaceable nature of their contents create a combination of risks that standard fire safety approaches are often ill-equipped to address.
And as a series of devastating fires at some of the UK’s most iconic buildings has demonstrated, the consequences of fire in a heritage setting can be catastrophic, not just for the building and its contents, but for the nation’s cultural identity.
This article looks at some of the most significant fires at heritage properties in the UK, examines what went wrong, and considers what those responsible for historic buildings can do to reduce the risk.
Why Are Heritage Properties So Vulnerable to Fire?
Before examining specific incidents, it is worth understanding why heritage properties present such an elevated fire risk.
The construction materials used in historic buildings, including timber frames, wooden panelling, historic flooring, and roofing materials such as lead and thatch, are often highly combustible and burn with great intensity once ignited.
The layout of many historic buildings, including large open volumes, interconnected rooms, hidden voids, roof spaces, and complex attic structures, allows fire to spread rapidly and makes it extremely difficult to contain.
Modern fire detection and suppression systems can be difficult or impossible to install in historic buildings without causing unacceptable damage to the historic fabric, creating a tension between fire safety and heritage conservation that requires careful management.
Many heritage properties have complex ownership and management structures, with responsibilities divided between private owners, charitable trusts, public bodies, and commercial operators, creating potential for confusion about who is responsible for fire safety.
And the very features that make historic buildings so valuable, their age, their craftsmanship, their irreplaceable contents, mean that the consequences of fire are uniquely severe and permanent.
Windsor Castle, 1992
The fire at Windsor Castle on 20th November 1992 is one of the most well-known fires at a UK heritage property, partly because of its scale and partly because of its timing, occurring in what the Queen famously described as her annus horribilis.
The fire started in the Queen’s Private Chapel when a spotlight ignited a curtain that had been placed too close to the fitting during a restoration project.
It spread rapidly through the northeast wing of the castle, destroying or seriously damaging nine state rooms and 100 other rooms, and burning for fifteen hours before it was brought under control.
The damage affected an area of around 9,000 square metres, and the restoration programme that followed took five years to complete at a cost of approximately £37 million.
The Windsor Castle fire highlighted a number of important lessons for heritage fire safety.
The absence of a sprinkler system, which had been considered but not installed in the historic rooms, was identified as a significant factor in the scale of the damage.
The fire also demonstrated the speed with which fire can spread through the complex voids and roof spaces of a large historic building, and the difficulty of fighting a fire in a structure of such complexity.
Following the fire, a comprehensive fire suppression system was installed at Windsor Castle, and the restoration programme incorporated significantly improved fire safety measures throughout the affected areas.
The Windsor Castle fire is frequently cited as a turning point in attitudes towards the installation of fire suppression systems in heritage buildings, demonstrating that the risk of damage from a sprinkler system is far less than the risk of catastrophic fire damage.
Uppark House, West Sussex, 1989
Three years before Windsor Castle, the National Trust property of Uppark House in West Sussex suffered a devastating fire on 30th August 1989.
The fire broke out during roofing works on the building and spread rapidly through the roof structure and into the rooms below.
While a heroic rescue effort by staff, volunteers, and members of the public saved a significant proportion of the house’s contents, the main building was almost completely gutted.
The Uppark fire drew particular attention to the fire risks associated with hot works in heritage buildings.
Roofing contractors had been using a blowtorch on the roof of the building, and the fire is believed to have been caused by smouldering material that was not detected before work finished for the day.
The investigation highlighted the absence of adequate hot works controls, including a fire watch procedure after the completion of hot works, as a key contributory factor.
The restoration of Uppark, completed in 1995 at a cost of around £20 million, incorporated modern fire safety measures including a sprinkler system, and the project became an important reference point for the integration of fire safety into heritage restoration.
The Uppark fire led to the development of more rigorous guidance on the management of contractors and hot works in historic buildings, and reinforced the importance of permit-to-work systems for high-risk activities in heritage settings.
Clandon Park, Surrey, 2015
The fire at Clandon Park, a National Trust property in West Clandon, Surrey, on 29th April 2015 is one of the most significant heritage fires of recent decades.
Clandon Park was an 18th century baroque mansion, regarded as one of the finest examples of its type in England, and housed an internationally significant collection of furniture, ceramics, and textiles.
The fire broke out in the basement of the building and spread rapidly through the historic structure.
Despite the efforts of more than 50 firefighters from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, the building was almost completely gutted, with only the exterior walls and a small number of ground floor rooms surviving.
The cause of the fire was identified as an electrical fault in the basement.
The scale of the loss was immense, both in terms of the building itself and its contents, with many irreplaceable objects destroyed.
The Clandon Park fire was particularly significant because it occurred at a property managed by one of the UK’s most experienced heritage organisations, demonstrating that no heritage property can be considered immune from the risk of catastrophic fire regardless of the experience and commitment of those managing it.
The National Trust launched a major restoration project at Clandon Park following the fire, incorporating state of the art fire suppression and detection systems, and the project has become an important reference point for approaches to fire safety in restored heritage buildings.
The fire also reinforced the case for comprehensive fire risk assessment and robust fire safety management in historic buildings, and for the installation of automatic fire suppression systems wherever this can be achieved without unacceptable harm to the historic fabric.
Cumbria’s Naworth Castle, 2016
Naworth Castle in Cumbria suffered a serious fire in June 2016, causing significant damage to the historic structure.
The castle, which dates to the 14th century and is a privately owned historic residence, was badly damaged by a fire that broke out in the early hours of the morning.
The fire highlighted the particular challenges of fire safety in privately owned historic houses, where resources may be more limited and professional fire safety advice less routinely sought than in properties managed by large heritage organisations.
Primark, Belfast, 2018
While not a heritage property in the traditional sense, the fire that destroyed the Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre on 28th August 2018 had profound heritage implications.
The Bank Buildings, which housed a Primark store, was a Victorian-era listed building in the heart of Belfast’s historic commercial district.
The fire, which started on the top floor, spread rapidly through the historic structure and burned for several days, causing the building to become structurally unstable and requiring the evacuation of a large area of Belfast city centre.
Several surrounding historic buildings were also damaged, and the disruption to the city centre lasted for months.
The Belfast fire reinforced the importance of fire safety in historic commercial buildings, particularly those that have been adapted for retail or other high-footfall uses, and drew attention to the challenges of achieving adequate fire safety standards in listed buildings where physical alterations are restricted by planning and conservation requirements.
Glasgow School of Art, 2014 and 2018
The Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building suffered two serious fires, in 2014 and again in 2018, with the second fire causing far greater damage than the first.
The building, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and completed in 1909, is widely regarded as one of the most important works of architecture in the United Kingdom.
The first fire, in May 2014, caused significant damage to the western wing of the building but left much of the structure intact.
A restoration programme was underway when a second, more devastating fire broke out in June 2018, destroying much of what remained of the building’s interior and causing irreparable damage to the historic fabric.
The second fire is believed to have started in the basement of the building and spread rapidly through the structure, which was partially open and undergoing works at the time.
The Glasgow School of Art fires prompted significant debate about the adequacy of fire safety measures during restoration works in historic buildings, and about the adequacy of the protection in place following the first fire.
They also raised questions about the availability and adequacy of heritage fire safety expertise, and about the tension between the desire to preserve historic fabric and the need to install effective fire safety measures.
The fires were a profound loss not just for Glasgow but for architectural heritage worldwide, and they generated a great deal of reflection within the heritage and fire safety communities about how better to protect irreplaceable historic buildings.
The Duchess of Northumberland’s Alnwick Garden Treehouse, 2021
A serious fire destroyed the iconic treehouse restaurant at Alnwick Garden in Northumberland in February 2021.
The structure, which was one of the largest treehouses in the world and a major tourist attraction, was largely constructed of timber and was destroyed within hours of the fire breaking out.
The fire highlighted the particular vulnerability of timber-framed structures and the importance of robust fire detection and suppression measures in buildings of this type, regardless of whether they are formally classified as heritage properties.
Wentworth Woodhouse, South Yorkshire
Wentworth Woodhouse, one of the largest private houses in England and a Grade I listed building in South Yorkshire, has faced ongoing fire safety challenges as part of a major restoration programme.
The property, which is managed by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, has highlighted the complexities of managing fire safety in an extremely large and complex historic structure with limited resources and a significant programme of ongoing works.
It serves as an important example of the challenges faced by those responsible for the largest and most complex heritage buildings, and of the need for specialist fire safety advice and bespoke fire safety strategies in these settings.
What Are the Key Lessons for Heritage Property Owners and Managers?
The fires described in this article point to a number of consistent lessons for those responsible for historic buildings.
Fire risk assessment is as much a legal requirement for heritage properties as for any other non-domestic building, under Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (SI 2005/1541), and must be carried out by a competent person with sufficient knowledge of both fire safety and the specific characteristics of historic buildings.
Hot works are one of the most significant causes of fire in heritage buildings, and robust permit-to-work systems, including mandatory fire watch procedures after the completion of hot works, are essential in any historic property where maintenance or restoration works are taking place.
Automatic fire suppression systems, most commonly sprinklers, have repeatedly been shown to limit the spread of fire in heritage buildings and to save buildings that would otherwise be lost.
The argument that sprinklers will cause unacceptable damage to historic fabric has been comprehensively undermined by the evidence from fires where no suppression system was in place.
Historic England and other heritage bodies have published guidance on the installation of fire suppression systems in listed buildings that is designed to help owners and managers achieve effective protection without unacceptable harm to the historic fabric.
Early and sensitive installation of fire detection systems is critical in heritage buildings, where the complex layout and construction can make it extremely difficult to detect a fire in its early stages.
Compartmentation and the management of voids and roof spaces require particular attention in historic buildings, where the original construction may include significant quantities of combustible material and where modern compartmentation standards are difficult to achieve without affecting historic fabric.
Contractor management and the control of hot works require the highest level of attention in heritage settings, given the frequency with which contractor activity has been identified as a contributory factor in heritage fires.
And the involvement of specialist heritage fire safety consultants, with expertise in both fire safety engineering and heritage conservation, is strongly advisable for any complex historic building, particularly where the standard approaches set out in Approved Document B or the guidance published by the National Fire Chiefs Council may not be directly applicable.
How We Can Help
At ESI: fire safety, we provide professional fire risk assessments and fire safety consultancy for a wide range of property types, including historic and heritage buildings.
We understand the unique challenges that heritage properties present, and we work with owners, trustees, managing agents, and facilities managers to develop fire safety strategies that are both effective and sensitive to the heritage significance of the building.
If you are responsible for a historic property and want to ensure that your fire safety obligations are being met, get in touch with our team today.
