An Advanced MxPro 5 fire system has been installed at the 62-storey 22 Bishopsgate tower in the City of London, the second-tallest building in Western Europe.

The 278-metre office building offers 1.275 million sq. ft of high specification office space, as well as eight community spaces, covering over 100,000 sq ft, including an innovation hub, curated gallery space, fresh food market, gym and wellbeing retreat. Advanced now protect both of Western Europe’s tallest buildings, with 22 Bishopsgate being the latest in a long line of London’s most prestigious and iconic skyscrapers specifying Advanced, including the Shard, the Leadenhall Building, the Heron Tower and the HSBC Tower.

At the centre of the active fire protection for 22 Bishopsgate are over 80 networked MxPro 5 panels with graphic display and BMS integration, alongside three AdSpecials special build panels for the building’s Fire Command Centre, that forms part of the intelligent fire detection network. Advanced’s panels are used alongside Apollo’s Soteria detectors and its networking is widely regarded as the most resilient and scalable solution on the market. It can be expanded up to 200 node networks covering huge areas with complicated cause-and-effect.

As a UK-first, 22 Bishopsgate utilises a specially developed lift-evacuation strategy in case of fire. The building is separated into four vertical areas by fire-hardened slabs with a two-hour fire rating separating a floor from the one above at levels 26, 42 and 58. Depending on where in the four vertical areas of the building a fire is detected, workers on that floor and the floors above egress via fire escape stairs to the area below, and from there can evacuate via the lifts, safe in the knowledge that these are protected by the slabs above.