The art of protection

The Corporation of London has spent five years and £450,000 implementing a security system to protect the new Guildhall Yard East complex. The complex, which houses the rebuilt Guildhall Art Gallery and a four-storey office block, has been erected on the site of the original art gallery, burned down during an air raid in 1941. The new building stands adjacent to the London Guildhall, which has been a centre of City government for more than 800 years and now houses the Corporation of London.

Philips Projects supplied and installed an integrated security system which features CCTV, access control, intruder alarms and a guard tour safety system, as well as panic alarms. The main challenge facing the Corporation of London and Philips was to design and install a CCTV surveillance system that would guard against crime, without it being obvious to the millions of visitors expected to come through the Gallery’s doors each year.

Project management

A number of companies tendered for the security systems contract, but the Corporation of London chose Philips Projects for three key reasons.

Michael Bankover, project liaison officer for the Corporation’s City Surveyor’s Department, was involved in assessing the tenders. Bankover explains: “Philips had already supplied and installed the security system for the other buildings within Guildhall Yard, so we were confident they could meet our requirements, which they have done.” Another factor in Philips’ favour, says Bankover, was the company’s ability to supply the equipment and design and install it: “It saved us having to deal with loads of contractors, which made the installation easier to oversee. With the building under construction, there was already more than enough contractors on-site.”

Harry Bastable, deputy security adviser for the Guildhall Yard East Art Gallery, recalls the final and not insignificant reason behind choosing Philips: “They were flexible in coming up with a suitable security system which fitted our budget. Everyone’s security is determined by the accountants, nowadays, and you never have quite as much money to spend as you’d like. Philips met our requirements for the system without having to compromise on quality.”

It was Bastable’s task to plan how the different security systems in use at Guildhall Yard East could be effectively deployed. Bastable visited a number of other galleries and museums to see how they used security systems, as well as consulting National Art Galleries and Museums Commission guidelines for implementing security systems. Bastable comments: “I was impressed with galleries, such as the Tate Gallery, which adhere to the Commission’s guidelines — I picked up ideas on how to monitor galleries without detracting from the paintings, for instance.”

The security installation wasn’t without its hiccups, however. Work was held up after the remains of London’s long-lost Roman ampitheatre, built around AD 70, were discovered: “The discovery delayed the installation and came as a bit of a surprise, even though we knew there were some Roman ruins down there,” comments Bastable. “It’ll be great for tourists to see [the Gallery has preserved the site], but it meant plans had to be changed.

“It made things very difficult until we worked out how to work around the ampitheatre. Philips had to re-route CCTV cabling. Subsequently, the cost went up.”

Monitoring the Gallery

Around £200,000 was spent on the CCTV system used in and around the Guildhall Yard East complex. The 22 cameras situated inside the Guildhall Art Gallery cover the main and rear entrances to the new building, as well as the gallery halls themselves. Cameras also monitor the gallery’s archives, picture and manuscript storage facilities, a frame restoration workshop and a paintings conservation studio.

When deploying cameras, Bastable had to get the balance right between making sure criminals knew CCTV was there and that they were being watched, while ensuring the system was unobtrusive to visitors.

A tricky task, but Guildhall has pulled it off, claims Bastable: “We’ve tried to make security as unobtrusive as possible, which is why we haven’t gone for masses of guards patrolling the site. CCTV is neat and tidy, but any would-be criminals can see it’s there. It’s a delicate balance.”

Retailers often use dome cameras to discreetly monitor the shopfloor. However, Guildhall Art Gallery, like many galleries and museums, has very high ceilings. This virtually ruled out dome cameras, recalls Bastable: “It made more sense to use a combination of fixed and pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) cameras, fitted to the walls, which provide closer surveillance.” Philips has fitted its colour, high resolution LDH0380 cameras inside the gallery, which would be barely noticeable to the tourist — the cameras can almost fit in the palm of your hand.

The cameras cover most of the art gallery and protect, primarily, against theft and terrorism. “Remember, there’s £70 million of artwork to protect at this site,” says Bastable. “We’ve got a pre-Raphaelite collection which hasn’t been seen for 60 years, which art thieves out there would love to get their hands on.”A number of galleries and museums have recently suffered from theft,” remarks Bastable.

The Art Loss Register has more than 100,000 stolen items listed, valued at around £3 billion, a fifth of which are registered by galleries and museums.

The cameras at the gallery will also enable the in-house security team to spot any suspect packages. “Our biggest potential threat is terrorism,” reveals Bastable. “The City of London is obviously a major target. Also, the Guildhall is often used for ceremonial occasions and state visits, so we have to be extremely vigilant.”

External CCTV

As inside the gallery, cameras deployed on the outside are discreetly positioned. Cameras cover the main and rear entrances to the gallery, as well as the side entrance which provides access to the office block, which houses 250 people. 16 LTC0600 series digital colour cameras, designed to work well in low-light conditions, are deployed around the building. Bastable says: “We’ve got a lot more cameras deployed outside than a building would normally have, but we hold state functions, so we have to have them.”

The Queen has already paid an official visit to the Guildhall Yard East complex, to unveil a plaque commemorating the grand opening. Bastable explains: “We can use the cameras outside the building to watch the vehicle routes used by cars carrying important visitors, as opposed to just worrying about who goes in the building.”

The control room

All cameras are controlled from the Guildhall’s existing control room, situated in the Guildhall. Authorised users need a Cotag proximity key fob to gain access to the control room via its two doors. The control room can be accessed via the adjoining art gallery. Inside the control room there’s a bank of 24 quad-screen, JVC colour monitors. Images from the on-site cameras are also fed back into the reception areas of both the Guildhall and the Art Gallery, where another three monitors are situated.

The control room also receives pictures from cameras situated around London’s Square Mile, so operatives can keep an eye on roads surrounding the Guildhall Yard. The site’s access control system can be operated by CCTV operatives who would also learn if an intruder or panic alarm has been raised.

A Guard Tour system is also built-in to the control room software. In the event of a deviation from a planned itinerary, or an extended delay, the system alerts the control room. Corporation of London’s Michael Bankover explains: “It might be a case that a guard has been injured, or he is responding to some kind of security alert, so we need to know.”

There are always two control room operators on duty. All CCTV operators, employed in-house by the Corporation of London, have received extensive training from Philips on how to operate the equipment: “Philips has been responsible for the training of over 40 security staff employed at this site,” says Bankover. “The training provided has been excellent - staff were shown how to respond to real-life scenarios, and how to operate the system under pressure.”

Other systems and integration

Over 80 doors in the new complex are controlled by a Granta Cotag access control system. Access is gained via proximity readers using Cotag key fobs.

Intrusion detection, in the form of passive infra-red detectors (PIRs), is extensively deployed throughout the building. If a PIR is triggered, the control room will be alerted and images from the CCTV camera nearest to the PIR will be recorded. The CCTV system’s VCR will also begin recording from the relevant camera if someone presses one of the panic alarms dotted around the gallery.

A walk-through metal detector and baggage x-ray machine, situated just inside the main entrance, enable security staff to scan employees, visitors and their belongings when they enter the gallery. RapiScan supplied the screening equipment.

Screening equipment aside, the rest of the security system has been deployed discreetly, in order to retain the aesthetics of the new building. Gary McDermott, project consultant for Philips Projects on the installation, says: “You cannot spot them, but we built access control card readers unobtrusively into the door pillars. Obviously, panic buttons have to be noticeable, but we’ve installed them on a panel which mirrors the furniture that is already there.”

McDermott adds: “There was a lot of consultation to get the system to blend in with the architecture, but you expect that. Working with the Corporation of London to get the right blend was fairly painless.”