On 20 November 1992, a major fire broke out in Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of the British monarch. Beginning in the Queen's Private Chapel, it spread rapidly through the State Apartments and became one of the largest peacetime fire‑fighting operations in modern British history. More than 200 fire‑fighters brought the blaze under control after 15 hours.
Although no one was killed, the fire caused severe damage to the fabric of the castle. Over 100 rooms were affected, including St George's Hall, the Grand Reception Room and the State Dining Room. Much of the Royal Collection had been removed the previous day or salvaged during the fire, but several significant works were lost. The scale of the destruction was widely described as a national disaster.
A large salvage operation involving castle staff, contractors, the Royal Household and the Household Cavalry saved thousands of books, manuscripts, clocks, miniatures and works of art. Queen Elizabeth II returned to residence within two weeks, and parts of the castle reopened to visitors within days. The fire prompted public debate about the funding of royal residences and contributed to the Queen's decision to begin paying income tax, as well as to the opening of Buckingham Palace to the public to help finance the restoration.
The restoration, led by the conservation architects Donald Insall Associates, took five years and cost £36.5 million. Combining faithful reconstruction with new architectural work, including Giles Downes's hammer‑beam roof for St George's Hall, it was completed in 1997 and became one of the most significant conservation projects of its kind. The fire occurred during what the Queen later described as her annus horribilis.
The fire began at 11:15 am when a spotlight, in the Queen's Private Chapel, was pressing against a curtain which caused a fire. Members of the Royal Household were in the chapel at the time inspecting works of art. A fire alarm sounded in the watch room of the castle's fire brigade, manned by the Chief Fire Officer, Marshall Smith. The fire's location was indicated by a light on the brigade's grid‑map of the castle. The Brunswick Tower was initially illuminated, but additional lights soon began to flash, showing that the fire had spread rapidly to neighbouring rooms.
A major section of the State Apartments was soon ablaze. Building contractors working nearby attempted to tackle the fire with extinguishers. The 30-foot-long (9.1 m) curtains eventually fell to the floor and continued to burn, while those present removed paintings from the chapel until the heat and falling embers forced them to withdraw at 11:32 am.
At 11:36 am, Smith activated a switch to alert the control room at Reading fire station. He then triggered the castle's public fire alarm and telephoned the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service on a direct line, stating, "Windsor Castle here; we have got a fire in the Private Chapel. Come to the Quadrangle as arranged". The castle maintained its own 20‑person fire brigade, including six full‑time staff. Equipped with a Land Rover and pump tender, they were based in stables two miles south of the castle and arrived at 11:41 am. Appliances from the Fire and Rescue Service reached the scene at 11:44 am. By 11:56 am, 17 pumping appliances had been ordered. An operation to remove furniture and works of art, involving castle staff, building contractors, and Prince Andrew, had commenced in rooms adjacent to the fire.
By 12:12 pm, there were 20 fire engines on site, and by 12:20 pm the number had risen to 35. More than 200 fire‑fighters had arrived from London, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Oxfordshire, as well as from Berkshire. The Fire Incident Commander was David Harper, Deputy Chief Fire and Rescue Officer of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service; the Chief Officer, Garth Scotford, was out of the country on holiday.
By 12:20 pm, the fire had spread to St George's Hall, a banqueting hall and the largest of the State Apartments. The number of fire appliances now totalled 39, with 225 fire‑fighters in attendance. Hoses were directed at all levels of the building surrounding the fire. As an indication of the scale of the incident, there had been only one 30‑appliance fire in the whole of Greater London since 1973.
By 1:30 pm, tradesmen had created fire‑breaks at the southern wall of the Green Drawing Room (at the end of St George's Hall on the east side of the Quadrangle) and at the north‑west corner at Chester Tower, where it joins the Grand Corridor. By this time, the fire‑fighters had begun to bring the blaze under control, although the roof of the State Apartments had started to collapse.
At 3:30 pm, the floors of the Brunswick Tower collapsed. Fire‑fighters had to withdraw temporarily to locate three men who were briefly lost in the smoke, and withdrew again when part of the roof collapsed and personnel were temporarily unaccounted for.
At 4:15 pm, the fire revived in the Brunswick Tower. As night fell, the blaze was concentrated in the tower, which by 6:30 pm was engulfed by flames up to 50 feet (15 m) high.
At 7:00 pm, the roof of St George's Hall collapsed.
By 8:00 pm, after burning for nine hours, the fire was under control, although it continued to burn for a further three hours.
By 11:00 pm, the main fire was extinguished, and by 2:30 am the last secondary fires had been put out. Pockets of fire remained until the early hours of the morning, some 15 hours after the blaze began. Sixty fire‑fighters with eight appliances remained on duty for several more days. The fire had spread rapidly due to the large cavities and voids in the roof. A total of 1.5 million gallons (7 million litres) of water from the mains supply, a reservoir‑fed hydrant, a swimming pool, a pond, and the nearby River Thames was used to fight the fire.
Apart from the several hundred fire‑fighters directly involved in tackling the blaze, staff and tradesmen assisted the castle's fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps in moving furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments. Items removed included a 150-foot (46 m) table and a 120-foot (37 m) carpet from the Waterloo Chamber, which were taken to the safety of the castle's riding school. It was an extensive operation: 300 clocks, a collection of miniatures, thousands of valuable books and historic manuscripts, and old master drawings from the Royal Library were saved. On the instructions of fire officers, heavy chests and tables were left in place. All other items were placed on large sheets of tarpaulin in the North Terrace and Quadrangle, and the police called in dozens of removal vans from across the home counties to transport the objects to other parts of the castle.
Members of the Royal Household, including the 13th Earl of Airlie, assisted in the operation. Staff of the Royal Collection Department were particularly active, among them the director, Geoffrey de Bellaigue; the Surveyor of Pictures, Christopher Lloyd; the Deputy Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art, Hugh Roberts; the Curator of the Print Room, Jane Roberts; and the Librarian, Oliver Everett. The Household Cavalry arrived from nearby Combermere Barracks, and around 100 officers and men of the Life Guards proved invaluable in moving large and bulky items. In all, 125 castle staff, 125 contractors, 100 military personnel, and 20 Crown Estate staff took part in the salvage effort.
There had been no serious injuries and no deaths. Dean Lansdale, a decorator working in the Private Chapel, burnt his hands while removing the three or four pictures he rescued. He was treated in the royal surgery before being taken to hospital. A royal spokesman denied media reports that the surveyor of the Queen's pictures had suffered a heart attack. Five fire‑fighters were taken to hospital with minor injuries.