Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London

Client: Royal Opera House
Contractor: Robert Patrick Construction Ltd
Value: £15,000 + VAT
Type of works: supply of mezzanine flooring, structures and accessories from RDA.

The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden required additional storage space for thousands of valuable costumes, but only had a narrow but tall building in Floral Street available for the purpose. The building had a deep basement but this could not be used owing to problems of access, security and dampness - which could potentially damage the costumes.

A horseshoe shape, two-level gallery, mezzanine structure from RDA Projects was designed to make the best use of the very restricted available space, whilst maintaining easy access, good air circulation and the lowest possible imposed loads to the basement slab.

The mezzanine columns were designed to extend through the existing timber joist and floorboard ground level to bear onto the concrete basement floor. This involved creating pockets in the floor and splicing beams and columns to fit into very restricted spaces where manoeuvrability was difficult.