1. Project Overview

The Oriel Centre, being delivered by Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, represents one of the most significant healthcare developments currently underway in the United Kingdom. Located in London, the scheme is a new-build, circa 10-storey facility bringing together clinical services, research laboratories and education into a single integrated environment. The building is designed around a central atrium space, the “Oriel”, which forms both a visual and functional heart to the development. As a high-rise healthcare building of considerable scale and complexity, it presents a demanding fire engineering and assurance challenge consistent with modern NHS infrastructure. 

Fire Safety Partnership Limited has been appointed as Authorising Engineer (Fire) from RIBA Stage 1 and has remained engaged through design development, construction and into the current commissioning phase. The role has been undertaken as an independent assurance function on behalf of the Trust, providing technical oversight, challenge and alignment between the project team and NHS fire safety governance expectations. This has included acting as a consistent point of technical reference, ensuring that fire safety considerations are embedded within the wider project decision-making process rather than treated as a standalone discipline. 

From the outset, the involvement has centred on establishing a coherent and defensible fire strategy aligned to healthcare operational requirements. Particular emphasis has been placed on ensuring that the design supports Progressive Horizontal Evacuation in accordance with HTM principles, recognising the dependency of patients and the clinical risks associated with full building evacuation. In a vertically stacked building of this nature, the robustness of compartmentation, the relationship between floors, and the ability to manage escalation scenarios become critical. The strategy has therefore required careful interrogation to confirm that evacuation assumptions remain valid across all levels and uses. 

The building’s mixed-use nature introduces further complexity. The integration of outpatient facilities, clinical spaces, and research laboratories within a single structure necessitates a balanced approach to compartmentation and fire risk management. The fire strategy must simultaneously address life safety, protection of critical research functions, and business continuity, without compromising the primary objective of safe evacuation. This has required a risk-based approach, supported by fire engineering where appropriate, and subject to ongoing review to ensure alignment with both Approved Document B and HTM guidance. 

The central atrium presents a further key challenge. While architecturally integral to the scheme, it introduces a vertical pathway for smoke movement and has a direct influence on means of escape. The design therefore relies on an engineered smoke control strategy, integrated with the fire detection and alarm system and the overall evacuation philosophy. The AE Fire role has included reviewing the underpinning design assumptions, ensuring that the proposed solutions are both technically robust and capable of being commissioned and maintained in practice. 

As the project has progressed into construction, the focus of the AE Fire role has shifted towards assurance of delivery. This has included the review and sampling of passive fire protection measures, ensuring that compartmentation is installed in accordance with the design intent and supported by appropriate evidence. In parallel, ongoing design changes have been reviewed to maintain alignment with the Golden Thread principles and to ensure that cumulative changes do not undermine the original fire strategy. 

The project is now in the commissioning and witnessing phase, which represents a critical point in translating design intent into operational performance. AE Fire involvement at this stage has focused on witnessing the testing of active fire systems, including fire detection and alarm cause and effect, smoke control systems, and the interaction between different life safety systems. Particular attention has been given to system integration, as the performance of the building in a fire scenario is dependent not on individual components, but on how these systems operate collectively. This includes verification that alarm zoning, phased evacuation signals, and smoke control responses align with the agreed evacuation strategy and clinical operational procedures. 

A consistent theme throughout the project has been the distinction between compliance and assurance. While the building is expected to meet the requirements of Building Regulations, the AE Fire role has been to provide confidence that the design is not only compliant on paper but is capable of performing as intended in practice. This includes challenging areas where fire engineering is relied upon, ensuring that assumptions are justified and that sufficient evidence exists to support the proposed solutions. It also includes recognising that the ultimate test of the strategy lies in its operation within a live healthcare environment. 

The value to the Trust has been the provision of an independent, technically robust assurance process throughout the lifecycle of the project. This has supported informed decision-making, provided a clear audit trail aligned with NHS governance expectations, and reduced the risk associated with handover and occupation. Importantly, it has ensured that fire safety is considered as an integral part of the building’s operation, rather than a compliance exercise completed at the end of construction. 

In summary, the Oriel Centre is a complex, high-rise healthcare development requiring a fully integrated and carefully managed fire safety strategy. The role of Fire Safety Partnership Limited as Authorising Engineer (Fire) has been to provide continuity, challenge and assurance from concept through to commissioning. The current phase of system testing and validation is critical, and the continued involvement of AE Fire ensures that the building will be handed over with a fire safety strategy that is not only compliant, but demonstrably robust, coordinated and aligned with the operational needs of the Trust.