Site Event is incredibly honoured to have been awarded the contract for Operation London Bridge, The Queens Funeral. It is a project we have been working on for many years prior to the 8th of September 2022 and is the largest contract we have facilitated in our 34-year history. It is a huge achievement for a small family company, starting with 3 toilets in 1988.
The operations were no mean feat, a plan that no one could be sure when would happen, but when it did everyone knew it would be all hands on deck to deliver the largest event of the century. From the first call, our teams rose to the challenge and came together to mobilise our event fleet to deliver into central London as quickly as possible. All staff dropped everything to help clean and prepare the equipment in the yard, working evenings and weekends. Our drivers began gearing up to deliver the initial load of toilets on Thursday evening. Delivering over 600 toilets within a couple of days whilst contracts, site plans and specifications were still being finalised, was challenging but our teams remained flexible and in good spirits to help where they could to overcome anything that was faced.
Site Event were contracted to deliver the ceremonies section of the event, delivering, collecting and servicing at facilities at Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Horse Guard Parade, Green Park, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, and many more prestigious areas. The site and security were by far the largest challenge we encountered, with protected members of the Royal Family coming and going from Buckingham Palace, whilst we were in full build presented the unique difficulty of surprise road closures. For example, on the first day of build, we arrived at 8 am and didn’t place our first toilet until 3 pm due to the difficulty of the event site and security measures in place. However, once the teams understood the fluid nature of the event and worked with the site managers, we swarmed the site with event toilets, accessible loos, and urinals.
We worked towards completing the build by Tuesday the 13th of September the day before the procession. However from Monday the 12th of September, we supplied a team of 26 cleaners who were available all day, every day to clean and replenish toilet rolls to the 600 toilets across the event site. Each evening a team of 4 rigid tankers and 10 servicing staff came in to empty and wash down all the toilets so they were fresh and ready for the following day. During the 10-day mourning period, thousands of members of the public came to the parks and the floral tribute, which was set up in Green Park in the lead-up to the Queen’s funeral.
By the time the funeral came by, our team had been onsite for a week and all understood their roles ensuring the event went smoothly without a hiccup.
Adam Gilbert, Director, exclaims ‘It was an incredibly rewarding event to work upon and defiantly a highlight of my career. The entire company worked around the clock relentlessly to ensure the project went well and it’s a testament to all our drivers, servicing staff, yard staff and office staff that it went well. Well done team!’