Specialist relocation of an extensive historical image archive
Motorsport Images is a photographic agency and archive with over 26 million images, including 13 million transparencies, negatives, prints and glass plates. This incredible photographic archive documents over 100 years of the history of motoring, with road car and sporting images since 1895.
Following the refurbishment of new offices in Isleworth, Motorsport Images – having used Crown’s expertise twice before – requested a quote from Crown Workspace specialist library division to assist with the sequential packing of journals, glass negatives and reference books as well as packing and transfer of the contents of the office.
Painstaking attention to detail for a seamless relocation
Following an initial site inspection by Crown’s account manager a proposed project solution was provided to complement the client’s requirements surrounding the fit-out schedule and high-density racking transfer programme. Crown worked alongside high-density racking specialists who were appointed to attend to the dismantling and reassembly of the high-density racking.
Suitable areas were identified to enable space for the dismantling and transfer of the racking, which were sectioned into three main areas A, B and C. To oversee the project, Crown provided a library manager who facilitated a labelling protocol enabling clear identification of any images during the transfer process. Crown’s library team sequentially packed and initially decanted fixed racking and journal contents to create space for the contracted high-density racking company specialists.
The next move was to decant the stock contained on the racking system to enable dismantling and transfer by the racking team. Upon completion of the racking assembly, Crown transferred the stock over to the new premises in Isleworth and sequentially unpacked.
The relocation also included the recovery of stock Crown had transferred from Italy, which was stored in a local offsite storage facility. These archives were then integrated into the new library.
To ensure the Motorsport Images team was operational from day one of the relocation, Crown also scheduled the transfer of office contents including desktop IT and furniture. This was achieved despite delays created by social distancing restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to say a big thank you for your help throughout our move, and of course to thank Steve Tanner and his whole library team, as well as the drivers and office staff. The whole team were good fun to work with and very professional. It was certainly a challenging move but you all helped it to go as smoothly as it possibly could have.”
Kevin Wood, Director of Photo Collections