View source for 1992 Windsor Castle fire

{{Short description|Fire at historic royal castle}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Windsor fire|Windsor Hotel fire|American Airlines Flight 96{{!}}Windsor incident}}
{{Infobox event
 |title = 1992 Windsor Castle fire
 |image = 
 |time = 11:15 [[GMT]]
 |duration = 15 hours
 |date = {{start date and age|1992|11|20|df=y}}
 |venue = [[Windsor Castle]]
 |location = [[Windsor, Berkshire]], England
 |coordinates = {{Coord|51|29|4|N|00|36|12|W|region:GB_type:event|display=inline,title}}
 |cause = Curtain ignited by spotlight
 |reported deaths = 0
 |reported injuries = 6 minor
 |reported property damage = St George's Hall ceiling collapsed; Crimson Drawing Room gutted, Green Drawing Room damaged; Queen's Private Chapel.{{clarify|date=April 2019}}
}}

On 20 November 1992, a fire broke out in [[Windsor Castle]], the largest inhabited [[castle]] in the world and one of [[List of British royal residences|the official residences]] of the [[British monarch]]. The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within the next five years at a cost of £36.5 million, in a project led by the conservation architects [[Donald Insall Associates]]. It led to Queen [[Elizabeth II]] paying tax on her income, and to [[Buckingham Palace]], one of her other official residences, being opened to the public to help pay for the restoration work. This event was part of what the Queen called her ''[[Annus horribilis#Elizabeth II|annus horribilis]]''.

==Timeline of the fire==
===Early stages===
The fire began in the Queen's Private Chapel at 11:15am when a curtain was ignited by a spotlight pressed up against it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/spotlight-is-blamed-for-blaze-at-windsor-1561542.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/spotlight-is-blamed-for-blaze-at-windsor-1561542.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Spotlight is blamed for blaze at Windsor|date=5 December 1992|access-date=20 December 2015|newspaper=The Independent}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Agents of the [[Royal Households of the United Kingdom|Royal Household]] were in the chapel at the time inspecting works of art. A fire alarm went off in the watch room of the castle fire brigade, manned by the Chief Fire Officer, Marshall Smith. The fire's location was shown by a light on a grid-map of the castle. Initially, the Brunswick Tower was lit up, but lights soon began to flash indicating that the fire had spread quickly to neighbouring rooms.<ref name="officialreport">{{cite web|url=http://www.rbfrs.co.uk/pdfs/windsor-castle-fire-report.pdf|title=Windsor Castle Fire Report|publisher=Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204020413/http://www.rbfrs.co.uk/pdfs/windsor-castle-fire-report.pdf|archive-date=4 December 2014}}</ref>

A major part of the State Apartments was soon ablaze. Building contractors working in a nearby room attempted to tackle the blaze with fire extinguishers. The {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} curtains eventually dropped to the floor and continued to burn, while those present hurriedly began removing paintings from the chapel, until the intense heat and raining embers forced them to leave at 11:32am.

At 11:36am, Smith pressed a switch to alert the control room at [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] fire station. He then activated the castle's public fire alarm and telephoned the [[Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service]] on a direct line, giving the message, "Windsor Castle here; we have got a fire in the Private Chapel. Come to the Quadrangle as arranged".<ref name="officialreport"/> The castle still had its own twenty-person fire brigade, of whom six were full-time. Equipped with a [[Land Rover]] and pump tender, they were based in stables two miles south of the castle, and arrived on the scene at 11:41am. Appliances from the Fire and Rescue Service arrived at 11:44am. By 11:56am, 17 pumping appliances had been ordered. An operation to save furniture and works of art involving castle staff, building contractors and one of the Queen's sons, [[Prince Andrew]], had commenced in rooms adjacent to the fire.

===Subsequent events===
[[File:Private Chapel at Windsor Castle (1848).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|An 1848 [[Lithography|lithograph]] of the Private Chapel by [[Joseph Nash]], the location where the fire started]]
By 12:12pm, there were 20 fire engines, and by 12:20pm there were 35. Over 200 fire-fighters had come from London, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Oxfordshire, as well as from Berkshire. The Fire Incident Commander was David Harper, Deputy Chief Fire and Rescue Officer of the Fire and Rescue Service. The Chief Officer, Garth Scotford, was out of the country, on holiday.

By 12:20pm, the fire had spread to St George's Hall, a banqueting hall and the largest of the State Apartments. The number of fire appliances now totalled 39 with 225 fire-fighters in attendance. Hoses were directed at all levels of the building surrounding the fire. As an indication of the fire's scale, there had been just one 30-appliance fire in the whole of Greater London since 1973.

By 1:30pm, tradesmen had created fire-breaks at the southern wall of the Green Drawing Room (at the end of St George's Hall on the east side of the Quadrangle) and at the northwest corner at Chester Tower, where joins the Grand Corridor. The fire-fighters had by this time started to bring the fire under control, though the roof of the State Apartments had begun to collapse.

At 3:30pm, the floors of the Brunswick Tower collapsed. Firemen had to temporarily withdraw to locate three men who were briefly lost in the smoke, and withdrew again because men were temporarily unaccounted for when part of the roof collapsed.

At 4:15pm, the fire had revived in the Brunswick Tower. As night fell, the fire was concentrated in the tower, which by 6:30pm was engulfed by flames up to {{convert|50|ft|m}} high.

At 7:00pm, the roof of St George's Hall collapsed.

By 8:00pm, after burning for nine hours, the fire was under control. It continued to burn for another three hours.

By 11:00pm, the main fire was extinguished, and by 2:30am, the last secondary fires were extinguished. Pockets of fire remained until the early hours of the morning, some 15 hours after it began. 60 firemen with eight appliances remained on duty for several more days. The fire had spread rapidly due to the large cavities and voids in the roof.<ref name="PurkissLi2013">{{cite book|author1=John A. Purkiss|author2=Long-Yuan Li|title=Fire Safety Engineering Design of Structures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpHNBQAAQBAJ|edition=3rd|year=2013|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4665-8548-5|page=11}}</ref> 1.5&nbsp;million gallons<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_2551000/2551107.stm|title=1992: blaze rages in Windsor Castle|date=20 November 1992|publisher=BBC Online|access-date=20 December 2015}}</ref> (7&nbsp;million litres) of water from the mains water supply, a reservoir-fed hydrant, a swimming pool, a pond, and the nearby River Thames were used to fight it.<ref name="officialreport"/>

==Salvage operation==
Apart from the several hundred firemen directly involved in the fire-fight,<ref name="Stevenson">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/21/world/big-fire-in-windsor-castle-raises-fear-about-artwork.html | title=Big fire in Windsor Castle raises fear about artwork | work=The New York Times | date=21 November 1992 | access-date=23 August 2014 | author=Richard W Stevenson}}</ref> staff and tradesmen helped the castle's fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps move furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments, including a {{convert|150|ft|m|adj=on}} long table and a {{convert|120|ft|m|adj=on}} long carpet from the [[Waterloo Chamber]], to the safety of the castle's riding school. It was an enormous operation: 300 clocks, a collection of miniatures, thousands of valuable books and historic manuscripts, and [[old master]] drawings from the [[Royal Library, Windsor|Royal Library]] were saved. On fire officers' instructions, heavy chests and tables were left behind. All other items were placed on giant sheets of tarpaulin in the North Terrace and Quadrangle, and the police called in dozens of removal vans from a large part of the [[home counties]] to transport items to other parts of the castle.<ref name="Stevenson"/>

Members of the Royal Household, including the [[David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie|13th Earl of Airlie]], assisted in the operation. The [[Royal Collection]] Department were especially active, including the director, Sir [[Geoffrey de Bellaigue]]; the surveyor of pictures, [[Christopher Lloyd (art historian)|Christopher Lloyd]]; the deputy surveyor of the Queen's works of art, [[Hugh Roberts (art historian)|Hugh Roberts]]; the curator of Print Room, [[Jane Roberts (librarian)|Jane Roberts]]; and the librarian, [[Oliver Everett]]. The [[Household Cavalry]] arrived from nearby [[Combermere Barracks]]. Some 100 officers and men of the [[Life Guards (United Kingdom)|Life Guards]] proved invaluable for moving bulky items. In all, 125 castle staff, 125 contractors, 100 military personnel and 20 [[Crown Estate]] staff were involved in the salvage operation.<ref name="officialreport"/>

There had been no serious injuries and no deaths.<ref name="officialreport"/> Dean Lansdale, a decorator in the Private Chapel, burnt his hands while removing the three or four pictures he rescued. He was moved to the royal surgery and then to a hospital.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Laura |date=2022-11-09 |title='The Crown': What Caused the Fire at Windsor Castle? |url=https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a41572539/the-crown-what-caused-the-fire-at-windsor-castle/ |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=Esquire |language=en-GB}}</ref> A royal spokesman denied reports in the media that the surveyor of the Queen's pictures had suffered a heart attack.<ref name="The Hour">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1916&dat=19921120&id=bAchAAAAIBAJ&pg=1318,2724029&hl=en|title=Windsor Castle heavily damaged: Royals, civilians save treasures from fire|date=21 November 1992|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=The Hour|location=Norwalk, Connecticut|page=23}}</ref> Five firemen were taken to hospital with minor injuries.<ref name="officialreport"/>

==Extent of damage to the castle==
===Structural damage===
The major loss was to the fabric of the castle. The false ceiling in St George's Hall and the void for coal trucks beneath the floor had allowed the fire to spread. It burned as far as the Chester Tower. Several ceilings collapsed. Apartments burnt included the Crimson Drawing Room (completely gutted), the Green Drawing Room (badly damaged, though only partially destroyed by smoke and water) and the Queen's Private Chapel (including the double-sided 19th-century [[Henry Willis]] organ in the gallery between St George's Hall and Private Chapel, oak panelling, glass and the altar).

St George's Hall survived with the walls largely intact, but the ceiling had collapsed. The State Dining Room in the Prince of Wales Tower and the Grand Reception Room were also devastated. In total, 100 rooms were affected by the fire. Smaller apartments damaged or destroyed included the [[Star Chamber]], Octagon Room, Brunswick Tower (covered in 12 feet (3.5&nbsp;m) of debris), Cornwall Tower, Prince of Wales Tower, Chester Tower, Holbein Room and the Great Kitchen, which lost its plaster coving and most of the medieval timber. The external wall above the bay window of the Crimson Drawing Room (between the Prince of Wales and Chester Towers) was seriously calcified.

===Contents===
[[File:George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops (1798).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A smaller copy of ''George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops'' by [[William Beechey]], a large painting destroyed in the fire]]
The most seriously damaged rooms had largely been emptied of their valuable contents the previous day, and some paintings were on loan to a travelling exhibition.<ref name="The Hour"/> Items from the Royal Collection lost include the Sir [[William Beechey]] equestrian portrait ''[[George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops]]'', which at 13&nbsp;feet (4&nbsp;m) by 16&nbsp;feet (5&nbsp;m) was too large to remove;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/4388563b189ac794927ec694fb5195d2|title=Painting lost in castle fire angered George III|publisher=AP News Archive|date=24 November 1992|access-date=20 December 2015}}</ref> an {{cvt|18|ft|m|adj=on}} long 1820s [[sideboard]] by Morel and Seddon; several items of porcelain; several chandeliers; the Willis organ; and the 1851 [[Great Exhibition]] [[Axminster carpet]] was partly burnt. [[Peter Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville|Peter Brooke]], then Secretary of State for National Heritage, called the fire a national disaster.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/22/world/most-art-safe-in-windsor-castle-fire.html|title=Most art safe in Windsor Castle fire|newspaper=The New York Times|date=22 November 1992|author=Richard W Stevenson|access-date=20 December 2015}}</ref>

===Tourism===
Tourists were allowed into the precincts within three days. The Queen was back in residence a fortnight later. The Gallery and [[Queen Mary's Dolls' House]] reopened in December.<ref name=bbc1>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/42731.stm|title=Public back in Windsor Castle|publisher=BBC News|date=27 December 1997}}</ref> The State Apartments reopened in 1993 after rewiring was completed, with all major rooms open by Easter, when only St George's Hall and the Grand Reception Room stayed closed. Thus eleven of fifteen principal rooms of the State Apartments were open, and two were still undergoing long-term restoration, with two more having been destroyed.

==Restoration project==
===Funding===
It was initially feared that it would cost £60&nbsp;million to restore the castle, though the final cost was £36.5&nbsp;million (equivalent to £{{Inflation|UK-GDP|36.5|1992|fmt=c}} million in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}{{Inflation-fn|UK-GDP}}), and that drying out the castle would take 10 years.<ref name="McDonald2007">{{cite book|author=Roxanna McDonald|title=Introduction to Natural and Man-made Disasters and Their Effects on Buildings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sD7iPbjlk_YC|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-39219-1|pages=156–57}}</ref> Occupied [[List of British royal residences#Current royal residences|royal palaces]] like Windsor Castle are too valuable to insure,<ref name="The Hour"/> and items in the [[Royal Collection]] are not insured against loss.<ref>{{Cite Hansard |jurisdiction=United Kingdom |house=House of Commons |title=Windsor Castle |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1992/dec/01/windsor-castle-1#S6CV0215P0_19921201_CWA_103 |date=1 December 1992 |volume=215 |column=101W }}</ref> An independent trust for private donations towards the cost of the restoration was announced on 16 February 1993 by the Queen's bank, [[Coutts]].<ref>{{Cite Hansard |jurisdiction=United Kingdom |house=House of Commons |title=Windsor Castle |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1993-02-16/Writtens-4.html |date=16 February 1993 |column=142 }}</ref> On 29 April 1993 it was announced that 70% of the cost would be met by charging the public for entry into the castle precincts and £8 for admission to [[Buckingham Palace]] for the next five years.<ref name="Hewison2015">{{cite book|author=Robert Hewison|title=Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics since 1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XDbCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT29|year=2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-51237-0|page=29}}</ref> The Queen contributed £2&nbsp;million of her own money,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.bt.com/news/world-news/november-20-1992-queen-faces-huge-repair-bill-as-windsor-castle-is-devastated-by-fire-11363945073106|title= November 20, 1992: Queen faces huge repair bill as Windsor Castle is devastated by fire|date=30 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328032109/http://home.bt.com/news/world-news/november-20-1992-queen-faces-huge-repair-bill-as-windsor-castle-is-devastated-by-fire-11363945073106|archive-date=28 March 2015|publisher=BT|author=Chas Early}}</ref> and she agreed to start paying [[Taxation in the United Kingdom#Income tax|income tax]] from 1993 onwards, making her the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_2529000/2529209.stm|title=1992: Queen to be taxed from next year|date=26 November 1992|access-date=22 May 2016|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

===Planning===
[[File:Windsor Castle St Georges Hall Design.jpg|thumb|A diagram of the new St George's Hall's roof and woodwork]]
On 7 June 1994, details of the restoration project were announced. The architectural firm [[Donald Insall Associates]] was appointed by the Royal Household to take overall charge of the restoration, with Sidell Gibson dealing with the reconstruction of St George's Hall and the design of the new Lantern Lobby and Private Chapel. Over half the damaged and destroyed rooms, including the State and Octagon dining rooms, were to be restored as original. There were to be new designs for the St George's Hall ceiling (with steel reinforcing beams in the roof) and East Screen, as well as the Queen's Private Chapel and the Stuart and Holbein Rooms. However, only the Queen's Private Chapel and several modern rooms were to be restored in a modern style.

Designs were submitted to a Restoration Committee, whose chairman was [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]] and deputy chairman was [[Charles III|Charles, Prince of Wales]]. Members included the [[David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie]] ([[Lord Chamberlain]]); Sir [[Hayden Phillips]] (Permanent Secretary of the [[Department of National Heritage]]); [[Norman St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley|Norman St&nbsp;John-Stevas, Lord St&nbsp;John of Fawsley]] (Chairman of the [[Royal Fine Art Commission]]); Sir [[Jocelyn Stevens]] (Chairman of [[English Heritage]]); [[Frank Duffy (architect)|Frank Duffy]] (President of the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]]); and three senior palace officials.

The fire, catastrophic though it was, presented the opportunity for some major new architectural work. Although criticised by some people who thought it lacked imagination, the architects believed that, given the history of the building and the surviving fabric, the new work had to be [[English Gothic architecture|Gothic]].

===Execution===
[[File:Ceiling of St George's Hall, Windsor Castle.jpg|thumb|upright=1.34|Giles Downes's new [[hammer-beam roof]] in St George's Hall, completed in 1997]]
The state dining room gilded [[sideboard]], 19 feet long and made out of rare rosewood and oak, was originally designed by [[Augustus Pugin]] in the 19th&nbsp;century. It had to be replicated by [[Rugby, Warwickshire|Rugby]]-based [[N.E.J. Stevenson]] using only some photographs and descriptions.

New designs for St George's Hall and the Queen's Private Chapel were approved by the Queen on 24 January 1995. Designed by architect Giles Downes, the new roof for St George's Hall is an example of a [[hammer-beam ceiling]]. The new chapel and adjoining cloisters were realigned to form a processional route from the private apartments, through an octagonal vestibule, into St George's Hall. Downes's new roof is the largest [[Oak|green-oak]] structure built since the [[Middle Ages]] and is decorated with brightly coloured shields celebrating the heraldic element of the [[Order of the Garter]]; the design attempts to create an illusion of additional height through the Gothic woodwork along the ceiling.<ref name="Nicolson1997">{{cite book|author=Adam Nicolson|title=Restoration: the rebuilding of Windsor Castle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeLVAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Michael Joseph|page=213|isbn=9780718141929}}</ref> Commentators have noted that Downes's work does much to compensate for the originally flawed dimensions of the hall.<ref name="Jones2005">{{cite book|author=Nigel R. Jones|title=Architecture of England, Scotland and Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epsFOeV1mCMC|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31850-4|page=307}}</ref> The Lantern Lobby has oak columns forming a vaulted ceiling, imitating an [[Zantedeschia|arum lily]].

The first stage of the structural restoration was completed in May 1996. Fitting out, originally planned to finish by spring 1998, occurred on 17 November 1997.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/31069.stm|title=Windsor Castle: five years from disaster to triumph|publisher=BBC News|date=17 November 1997}}</ref> The Queen held a reception in the newly restored hall for the architects and building contractors involved in the project.<ref name="McDonald2007"/>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/a-day-that-shook-the-world-windsor-castle-fire-2137707.html A day that shook the world: Windsor Castle fire (2010)] at ''The Independent''

{{Elizabeth II|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Windsor Castle fire, 1992}}
[[Category:Building and structure fires in England]]
[[Category:Disasters in Berkshire]]
[[Category:Windsor Castle|1992 Fires]]
[[Category:1992 disasters in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1992 in England]]
[[Category:1992 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1990s fires in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1992 fires]]
[[Category:1990s in Berkshire]]
[[Category:November 1992 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Residential building fires in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Events involving British royalty]]
[[Category:Rebuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:Prince Andrew, Duke of York]]
[[Category:Building and structure fires during construction or renovation]]