Operations and Event Health & Safety: Mount Street Christmas event for Grosvenor

Background

The OPS team has been working with Grosvenor, one of the UK’s leading property companies, since 2016 - providing a wide range of services to help them deliver a broad range of events.

The annual Mount Street Christmas Lights Switch-On event is a highlight in London’s festive calendar. The event coincides with the unveiling of the Connaught Hotel’s artist-designed Christmas Tree and features late night shopping in the street’s many high-end retailers. Guests can also enjoy live performances, as well as a wide range of goods sold at stalls in the space.

Working alongside our sister agency We Are Placemaking, who produce the event for Grosvenor, our team delivers a range of operational and event health & safety services enabling this event to go ahead.

 Challenges

• We are always looking to help our clients expand their events in a safe way. Grosvenor wanted to change the format of event, providing more entertainment and activity on the road and on the stage, which required further consideration of the site plan in advance of the live event. The event is promoted to local residents and businesses and is free to attend and un-ticketed, taking place on public streets.  Historically the event has occurred without a road closure, with staff managing the crowds and vehicle movements at the peak switch on time. Year on year, however, the event has increasingly busy, and the decision was made following to implement a road closure to safely facilitate the delivery of the event. 

• The event included five chalets on the street which had not been included previously. This involved more logistical considerations, including closing the road and setting up earlier. We ensured there was a longer build time to make way for these additions, and we liaised with residents as well as management at the Connaught Hotel to facilitate earlier road closures.

Delivery

• Event Documentation (Event Safety Management Plan, Risk Assessment, Counter Terrorism Risk Assessment, parking suspensions, Event Application)

• Liaison with Westminster City Council

• On-site health and safety advisors

• Accessibility audit on site in partnership with Attitude Is Everything who completed on site audit during live event, proviing feedback to production team and health and safety to establish benchmark of accessibility at the event.

Results

• Over 6,000 happy guests

• New infrastructure and services successfully implemented

• Exceptional feedback from the client, who is keen to continue expanding our retained services