The Windsor Castle Fire
What do you do when something priceless gets ruined? There’s no insurance. There’s no selling it and getting another. It can’t be replaced. All you can do is rebuild and restore it as best you can.
Hello, and welcome to On This Date, Some Years Back. Today is November 20, 2017, and on this date, 25 years back, in 1992, Windsor Castle was extensively damaged by a fire.
Windsor Castle is one the primary residences of the United Kingdom’s Royal Family. Located in Windsor, Berkshire, just outside of London, Windsor Castle was built in the 11th century, and is the largest regularly inhabited castle in the world.
In 1992, in the Queen’s Private Chapel, a drapery made contact with a spotlight and ignited. Staff worked to both fight the fire, as well as gather and preserve important artifacts and furniture. First, workers used fire extinguishers. Then, the castle’s private fire brigade used their pump tender. The fire could not be contained, and just over an hour after it began, there were 35 firetrucks and 200 firemen on the scene.
In all, the blaze burned for 15 hours, and 1.5 million gallons of water had been pumped into the castle in an effort to fight the fire. The water was sourced from tankers, fire hydrants, a pond, a swimming pool, and even the River Thames when other sources became depleted.
Mercifully, there were no serious injuries or deaths from the incident.
There was, though, the matter of repairing Queen Elizabeth II’s preferred weekend home, which just so happened to be 900 years old. The fire had burned much of the cloth wall coverings and draperies that it encountered, as well as collapsing several ceilings. The water which extinguished the fire, though, also did it’s fair share of damage as well.
Initial estimates were that the restoration of the castle would cost £60 million, and it should be made clear that inhabited palaces, owned by royalty, are typically too valuable to insure. They are literally priceless, and no underwriter in their right mind would assume such a massive risk. So the repair costs would also have to be paid out of pocket.
Most people don’t know this, but the Royal Family aren’t as filthy, stinking rich as we assume. In 2011, Forbes estimated Queen Elizabeth II’s net worth at £325 million, and that figure may have dropped, as Bloomberg put the figure at £275 million in 2015. Adjusting for inflation, the £60 million bill would have constituted about a third of the Queen’s net worth back then. It was devastating.
In order to cover the expense, several steps were taken. First, a trust was open to accept private donations, a sort of GoFundMe from the pre-internet days. The Queen kicked things off by chipping in £2 million out of her own pocket. The Royal Family also made their castles (including both Windsor and Buckingham Palace) open to the public, charging an admission fee that would go toward the work. And as one more gesture of good will to her subjects, the Queen agreed to pay income tax, overturning a longstanding tradition of royal exemption.
The money was raised, and the work was completed over the next several years. The total cost came in well under the estimates, at £36.5 million. To this date, however, the Royal Family continues to pay taxes, and most Royal residences remain open to the public in some capacity.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back tomorrow for another Bloody Sunday.
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