Centre spur plant room – 2nd floor

Combined with the Centre spur plant room – 3rd floor, this area provided conditioned air to the Print Floor and Business Centre.

Both the Business Centre and Print Floor had vaulted concrete roofs. These roofs were joined to the central spur of the William Roy Building (WRB) at second floor level. The original plan, which was still in use for the Print Floor side, had air supplied into the work area by ducts contained behind the suspended ceilings in the vaulted roof sections. Stale air was extracted by grilles between the ‘valleys’ in the vaulted roof.

The second floor had a central section (known as the ‘Maintenance Corridor’) a one bay wide that ran the length of the spur. This contained pumps, pipework and control panels, as well as fuseboxes for the Print Floor lights.

  • Diverter valve
    This diverter valve controls the flow of chilled water to the Print Floor ventilation plant above. It controls whether the water recirculates or is returned to the main.
  • 2nd floor centre spur plant room - pipes and valves.
    2nd floor centre spur plant room – pipes and valves.
  • 2nd floor centre spur plant room - fuse boxes
  • Grundfos chilled water pumps
    Grundfos chilled water pumps for the Business Centre air con
  • Fan monitoring and control panel
    2nd floor centre spur plant room – fan monitoring and control panel.

The bays either side of the central ‘Maintenance Corridor’ are divided into two sections lengthways. The section adjoining the Print Floor is one long, narrow corridor containing large ducts that cross the room from the Print Floor supply ducts into ducts that go up to the third floor. The extract grilles open straight into this area and large fans mounted in the floor extract the air to the third floor. Between this area and the central corridor are ducts and small passageways that allow access between the areas.

Each AHU on the 3rd floor serves two of the eight roof shells. The fifth AHU, at the B core end, originally served the ground and 1st floor repro areas in front of the Print Floor; there was a complex system of ducts enabling this. Two large ducts bypassed the 1st floor to serve the ground floor below. Since those areas were converted into offices in the mid-late 1990s, I am not sure what purpose this AHU served.

  • Ven
    Vent extract grille, one of several that allowed stale air to enter the return air plenum from the Print Floor

The Business Centre side is considerably different; all the original ducts and a lot of the walls have been removed and replaced with new circular ductwork with varying designs depending on the areas served. You can see these ducts in the Exhibition Area if you look up at the ceiling, although they have been painted black to minimise visibility.

A final note of interest is that there are manholes and ladders allowing easy access between the 2nd and 3rd floor plant rooms.

Last updated on Wednesday 26 September 2018 by GaryReggae