Providing Somerset House with a bespoke banner pole solution

Situated in the heart of London, Somerset House is a working arts centre and home to the UK’s largest and most exciting creative community. In an ordinary year, the venue welcomes three million visitors to share the unique combination of public events, creative enterprise and artistic practice.

Somerset House required a banner pole to sit afront the venue to advertise that it was open for the general public to visit and showcase the main entrance. The displayed flag would also need to be changed on a regular basis to promote different exhibits and events, so lowering and raising the banner pole needed to be easy and efficient.

The existing solution at Somerset House required a cherry picker to change the flag, which was difficult to obtain permission for and also proved to be inefficient from both a time and cost perspective. There was also a 15m drop in front of existing banner pole, which caused access difficulties.

The position of where the banner pole was required meant it needed to be manoeuvred at an angle when lowered and raised, so it would avoid an adjacent wall. The overall structural impact of installing the banner pole had to be taken into consideration, so no damage was caused to Somerset House.

To meet these requirements, Somerset House required a supplier which had a wealth of expertise in developing bespoke historical property banner poles.

Harrison Flagpoles was instructed by Somerset House to deliver a bespoke historical property banner pole to meet the requirements of the working arts centre.

To ensure the venue’s desired functionality specification was achieved, we firstly undertook a full computer modelling analysis to calculate what was required and to understand whether the proposed solution would be a success. This was integral to ensuring the objectives of the project were achieved.

The banner pole itself stands at 6.6m in height and, thanks to our initial computer modelling analysis, is bespoke to site specification.

The raising and lowering of the banner pole was a critical requirement for Somerset House. To allow this to be seamlessly done, we designed and installed a bespoke hinging jack mechanism which would be operated with a screw jack. The system also allowed the banner pole to manoeuvre when being raised or lowered to avoid the adjacent wall.

Throughout the entire process, our engineers worked closely with Somerset House’s architectural team to ensure any potential structural issues were avoided.

Harrison Flagpoles is the UK’s leading authority in the design, manufacturing, and installation of historical property banner poles.

As a result, our expert team has created a bespoke banner pole which allows Somerset House to easily lower and raise the pole using a mechanical hinge jack and change the banner without any hassle. The banner pole also met the required structural specification of the building.

Our expertise enabled us to deliver Somerset House with high-quality solutions which met its requirements, whilst also building a successful partnership with the renowned venue.

Mick Figg, head of buildings at Somerset House Trust, commented:

“I would highly recommend Harrison Flagpoles to any buildings manager of a historical property. The company was able to design, manufacture and install a bespoke banner pole solution to meet Somerset House’s challenging requirements.

“I found the Harrison team very easy to work with, and their knowledge and expertise made them the first-choice supplier when it came to providing the venue with its new banner pole.”

If you’re looking for a high-quality supplier of bespoke flag and flagpole solutions for your historical property, visit our construction page or get in touch with our team today for more information.