Nobel Fire Systems helps London’s hottest celebrity hangout keep its cool

Described in the press as “London’s hottest celebrity hangout”, the Chiltern Firehouse is located in an old fire station in London’s Marylebone area.
Opened earlier this year, the restaurant interior has retained many of the building’s original features with large doors and high ceilings. Brick tiles on the walls, wooden floors that spill over to tiled flooring and green velvet benches help give a very modern feel with traditional brasserie twists.

While front of house has been lavishly designed, the open kitchen also makes a very clear statement of quality and intent with equipment that is both practical and sympathetic in design terms to the whole restaurant environment.

A critical part of the open kitchen design included that of fire protection and working closely with Halton Foodservice, Nobel Fire Systems designed and installed its award winning K-Series fire suppression system in the new kitchen.

K-Series has the ability to meet the most stringent fire protection requirements while at the same time maintaining the aesthetics provided by the rest of the high quality kitchen equipment. Part of Nobel’s brief stipulated that diners were not to be subjected to viewing ugly pipework running along walls and ceilings, and even boxed in pipework was banned as part of the owner’s determination to reflect high-end aesthetics throughout the establishment.

With so many commercial kitchens now being located in building that have multiple usage, fire protection procedures must be considered with regard to the whole building. Here again, K-Series has a distinct advantage over other systems as it’s capable of providing protection along the  entire length of the duct work to the extract fan and/or point of extract to the external environment. Where duct work goes beyond 5m or in multiple occupancy buildings, this isn’t just desirable, it’s essential.

As Nobel’s K-Series fire protection systems are engineered to meet the specific individual requirements of the kitchen being protected, the first task was to carry out a fully comprehensive risk assessment of the restaurant’s kitchen.

Following the assessment the optimum K-Series system was then integrated seamlessly into the kitchen by Nobel’s in-house team of engineers. Each system is electronically controlled with no mechanical moving parts and components are manufactured in stainless steel to enhance the working life and endurance of the product.

The end result is a fire suppression system that provides unrivaled capabilities and gives full protection to all the required cooking appliances, extract canopy and duct work. And importantly, the system has been installed in complete sympathy with the appearance, functionality and strict hygiene requirements of this truly amazing restaurant kitchen.

Installations comprise of one or a number of stainless steel cylinders, each containing a highly effective F class wet chemical liquid designed specifically for fast flame knock down and fire suppression. The low, near neutral pH value of the liquids ensures that there is no damage to the commercial kitchen appliances, and as a direct consequence of the efficiency of K-Series in limiting the volume of liquid required to control the situation, there is minimal clean-up requirements following discharge.

The electrical nature of Nobel’s K-Series system allows it to continuously monitor itself ensuring the integrity of the system is never in doubt. Any faults are flagged by the systems control panel and announced through audible and visual alerts which can then be diagnosed and fixed remotely. System integrity is guaranteed 7 days a week, 365 days a year. As an additional safeguard, the K-Series system has been designed to interface with the in-house fire alarm system

Nobel’s Commercial Director, Ben Parker commented;
“We’re delighted to have worked with Chiltern Firehouse on this exciting and demanding project. Here at Nobel, the entire focus is on fire suppression technologies for special risk environments such as the catering industry. That’s why businesses like Claridge’s, Caprice Holdings Group, Jamie Oliver, Holiday Inn, and many other famous brands continue to install the industry leading K-Series fire suppression systems in their kitchens”.