Powerhire were contacted by a London based European Premier Special Events Company, that hosts high fashion stage shows and launch parties, who were organising an event in the hall of one of London’s oldest spa buildings, the Grade II listed Porchester Centre in West London. Built in 1923–25 by a local architect with Turkish Baths added
Powerhire were contacted by a London based European Premier Special Events Company, that hosts high fashion stage shows and launch parties, who were organising an event in the hall of one of London’s oldest spa buildings, the Grade II listed Porchester Centre in West London.
Built in 1923–25 by a local architect with Turkish Baths added in 1929, Porchester Spa still stands today. According to English Heritage “The Turkish baths complex is now exceptionally rare, and is thought to be the best surviving example, whilst the hall is an unusually rich example of its date”. Porchester Hall has hosted some notable pop music acts over the years including Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, Kylie Minogue and Amy Winehouse. It was also home, during the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s to the annual Porchester Hall Drag Balls.
The Events Company had been tasked with producing a 1920’s themed birthday party being hosted by a high profile London based female entrepreneur.
Due to the age of the venue it has a limited power supply which was inadequate for the planned event and temporary power was needed to boost the mains power supply that was to provide the stage lighting and run the kitchen appliances. The event company estimated they would require around 150kVA to run the event.
Our Technical Sales Manager followed up the enquiry with a visit to the venue to meet with their Technical Director to determine the power requirements needed for the party. Following the site survey of the venue and the surrounding roads, to take into account the delivery of the equipment, it was agreed that due to constricted road access to the building we would provide 3 off 100kVA road tow synchronised generators and 1 off 2000 litre bulk fuel tank to provide the standby solution to run alongside the main power for the event.
Following agreement from both parties, our Sales Manager contacted the head office to ensure that the equipment was available which was then reserved by our rental co-ordinator who then liaised with the logistics manager to book appropriate transport and labour.
Due to health and safety, and required access for other services for the event, the generators were required to be positioned away from the entrance; which meant the cable run would be over 100 meters long running through the corridors and kitchens into the upper balcony of the main hall.
Restrictions to where the generators could be located meant the Powerhire logistics team delivered the temporary generators together with the fuel tank first thing on the Thursday morning where they would remain until the Sunday morning, ensuring that they were positioned in place prior to the other services arriving so as not to cause any obstructions.
With the rehearsal taking place on Friday evening, Powerhire’s engineers and cable hands arrived on site Friday morning to install the 3 x 100kVA generators and fuel tank. Two generators were to run in synch so if one failed the other would seamlessly continue to provide power with the 3rd generator as a standby.
Given the high profile of the occasion the event company requested an engineer on site for the duration including for the rehearsals on Friday evening and the full event on Saturday evening.
Our Senior Engineer was only too happy to be present throughout the rehearsal. He then returned and remained onsite from 9am Saturday through until the event finish at 4am on Sunday morning, making sure the distribution was de-installed and all equipment packed and removed from site by 8am Sunday morning.
The spectacular party was huge success and ran seamlessly with no interruptions to the power.