SAFES
SPONSORED BY DAVENPORT BURGESS
THE LAST BASTION
OF DEFENCE
By Mike Palmer, Safes Consultant and
Founding Chairman of Eurosafe.
On the evening of Saturday
10th May 1940, the Luftwaffe
rained incendiary bombs on
London’s West End.
Amongst many of the
premises totally destroyed by
the ensuing blaze was No 128
Queen Victoria Street, which
was the headquarters of Chubb
& Sons, the country’s best
known lock and safe company.
The fire continued to rage
throughout the following
Sunday and when it was
finally extinguished, nothing
46
remained of the building but
a heap of steel girders, twisted
like tapers, and a pile of bricks
and rubble.
Included in the many
documents held at this address
were all the corporate archives
recording the fascinating
history of the company’s
founders, Charles and
Jeremiah Chubb. The fact
that these unique records still
exist to this day is a testament
to the protective qualities of
the Chubb Document Fire
THE JAN/FEB 2014 ISSUE
SPONSORED BY ASSA ABLOY Security Solutions
Safes in which they were
secured. These irreplaceable
photographs and hand-written
records had not only survived
the complete burn-out and
collapse of these premises,
but were in absolutely pristine
condition when they were
recovered. All Chubb’s other
vital corporate records; ledgers,
deeds, share certificates,
insurance documents and
customer lists were secured in
a strongroom in the basement.
They also survived intact
and once new premises were
found, Chubb’s business
was able to resume with the
minimum of delay.
During the war Britain’s
beleaguered population
was expecting air raids,
anticipating and preparing
as best they could, for the fire
and destruction that would
inevitably follow in the wake of
German bombers.
Today, the enemies we face
are largely hidden. In spite of
the fact that the authorities
warn that it is a not a matter
of ‘if’ but where and when the
,
next terrorist attacks will take
place, years may pass between
one terrorist raid and the next
and the natural inclination is to
become complacent; to lower
one’s guard.
After the IRA bombed the
City of London in 1993 in
which 40 people lost their lives,
many of them from the terrible
injuries caused by flying glass,
companies responded by
fitting blast curtains and anti-
shatter film to their windows to
protect their employees.
Security directors invested
in the latest access control
systems and suddenly the
City bristled with CCTV
cameras. Awareness was
at its height. Second only
to the protection of their
employees, companies were
also concerned for the security
of their important assets. The
years since the Second World
War had witnessed the rapid
development of computer
technology. A roomful of
documents can now be
condensed onto a single shiny
disk little bigger than a drinks
coaster. The entire corporate
accounts records of a major
company can be stored in
a cabinet the size of a small
fridge. If just one disk is stolen
or destroyed, the future of a
business could be in jeopardy.
Yet the disks and tapes used
to record all this da K\