About The Client
The Mercers’ Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers (Mercers), is a livery company based within the City of London. One of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, it ranks number one on that list.
Formed as a fraternity at least by the reign of King Henry II, in the mid 1100s, its official formation was in 1394. The aim of the Mercers was to act as a trade association for general merchants, and especially for exporters of wool and importers of velvet, silk and other luxurious fabrics.
Today the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes. The company’s motto is Honor Deo, (Latin, ‘Honour to God’).
The Requirement
During 2023 together with other substantial construction, the team at the Mercers were looking to improve storage within its London headquarters. The collection held was vast, built up over its 700 year history and included items of hugely varying sizes, shapes and types. The items included: Fabrics, Boxed catalogued items, framed artworks, historic documents (within boxes and loose), Rolled maps and manuscripts, together with other miscellaneous items.
The team had ideas and plans for 5 floors of the building including the basement. Floors 1 to 4 were earmarked to become high density storage areas. To ensure they were both maximising the potential storage space, and keeping the collection in the best possible conditions they turned to Rackline to provide consultation and provide storage solutions.
The Solution – A Huge Number of Archive Storage Solutions
The Solutions
Cut back plans are available at the bottom of this section.
• Basement
There was a requirement to expand the archive storage provision within the Archivists office in the basement of the building. Rackline installed several bays of its time tested Pro-Libero steel shelving solution in 400mm and 600mm depths. These were finished in RAL9016 (White) to provide a clean look. These shelves are Ideal for the storage of boxes and books.
• First and Second Floors
The First and Second floors required the installation of a huge amount of roller racking. To achieve the required space maximisation, Rackline installed solutions based on its Multitrak mobile bases, topped with Pro-Libero shelving units. In total on Floor 1, 70 Pro-Libero bays were installed at 670/770/870/970mm wide x 300/400/500mm deep. These varied between 4 & 5 levels high and in total provided 312 linear metres of plain shelf storage space. On Floor 2, 66 Pro-Libero bays were installed at 570/670/770/870/970mm wide x 300/400/500mm deep. These bays varied between 4 and 5 levels high and provided 290 linear metres of storage space.
The Multitrak bases required tracks, and these were set into the concrete floor screed on these floors, Setting the tracks into the floor ensures level access, without need for a step.
The installed shelving was a mix of braceless and braced solutions. Where braceless shelving is used, items can be loaded from either side of the carriages.
Perforated end panels combine with perforated uprights to ensure air circulation and the protection of documents from damp. Each of the mobile bays were fitted with locks, allowing them to secured individually.
Pull-out access shelves were installed in some bays to form a space to examine items and documents. These fold away for closure of the systems.
• Third Floor
Floor three required archive storage to hold (amongst other items) hung artworks, rolled maps and documents. To achieve the safe keeping of these items a number of solutions were implemented.
First, as with Floors 1 and 2, roller shelving consisting of Multitrak bases with Pro-Libero shelving. The shelving bays were constructed in numerous ways, with different depths, widths, flat and sloped shelves and pull-out reference shelves for the viewing of items. Also on these bays, Rackline installed welded frame Prospan shelving, these systems were provided open, so that longer, larger items could be placed upon them.
In order to hold the valuable artworks held by Mercers, both lateral art racking panels, and static mesh panels were installed. The lateral racking allows the artworks to be compressed into the smallest space possible while keeping them in ideal conditions and retaining accessibility. The static mesh panels convert unused wall space into effective art storage space.
Rackline’s Plan chest units were manufactured to provide safe storage of maps, textiles and other items which were required to be stored flat. These were provided within bays of the Pro-Libero shelving to provide drawers and shelves in the same unit. These combined units were also on mobile bases so could be closed up and secured with the shelving.
Within the space there were a number of specialist items, such as rolled maps, which needed safe storage. To this end, some of the shelving was adapted in size and shape to fit these specific items. Combinations allow for the storage of rolled items, while also providing space for vertically stored artworks.
In total on this floor Rackline installed 45 Pro-Libero bays at 670/870/970/1375mm wide x 400/500/600/700/950/1000mm deep with levels varying between 2, 5 and 6 levels high. This provided 186 linear meters of shelving space. In addition, the plan chests provided 65 linear metres of drawer storage. Finally the mesh panels and lateral art racking provided 24m2 of hanging storage for artworks.
• Fourth Floor
On The Fourth floor, as with floors 1 and 2 Rackline installed 65 Pro-Libero bays onto its Multitrak mobile bases. The tracks were set into the floor screen to ensure a flat surface without a step. As with the other floors a combination of braced and braceless shelving solutions allows some bays to be accessible from both sides of the carriage. In total 65 bays of Pro-Libero shelving was installed on this floor, at 670/770/970mm wide x 300/400/500mm deep. Each bay was either 5 or 6 levels high and in total provided 326 linear metres of plain shelf storage space.
Basement
Floor 1
Floor 2
Floor 3
Floor 4
The Result
The Result is that the Mercers vast collection of artifacts, artworks and documents are kept safely across numerous high density archive storage solutions that both maximise the space while retaining easy access when required. With the archive storage solutions in place, the Mercers can be sure that their valuable collection will be kept safe for future generations.
Find Out More
If you have seen any archive storage solutions that you like within this case study then get in touch: 01782 770144, alternatively fill in your details below and one of our team will be in touch to discuss your options.