In this post we take a look at our marquee hired out to the National Trust for a temporary space, used to extend their cafe seating area during the February half term week. This is a small case study explaining the process.
We received the initial enquiry from the National Trust about 2 weeks prior to installation. The brief was for us to install a marquee down at Knoll Beach, Studland, to create an additional seating area for people who use the cafe and in particluar dog walkers. The marquee should have heating as well as a variety of tables with chairs. The size of marquee was already suggested so we didn’t need to calculate that, we just needed to check the capacity so we could quote for the correct amount of furniture.
It is worth mentioning that half term week down at Studland offers the public the chance to get involved with events and activities such as build a nest box day and sunset family evenings. You can find out more by visiting their site here.
The marquee itself is a stand alone frame 6 x 9 metres. It is clear span and will have clear windows overlooking the glorious view of the sea and Old Harry Rocks in the distant, a personal favourite! For the tables and chairs we settled on a mix of 3 ft round tables which will seat 3 comfortably and 4 if you squeeze up, and 6ft trestle tables which will seat upto 6. Folding wooden chairs were supplied with enough to fit around the tables plus a few extras as requested.
For the heating part of the job we supplied and installed our infrared heating lamps. These are perfect for this type of set up. As a direct heating source you benefit from the heat they omit only when sat in underneath, or very close. This is the opposite to an indirect source of heat, for that we stock heaters that burn diesel to create heat which then gets blown in through ducting in to the marquee from outside. We therefore installed lamps to cover the majority of the internal space with heat. You can find more info on all the interior products such as tables, chairs and heating options on our equipment page
Now as a marquee company we are constantly looking at the weather reports as they play a major role with our planning. So with the marquee was due to be put up on friday 14th February and with the impending news of Storm Dennis and the 70mph winds that were due to be hitting us here on the south coast we decided to get back in touch with our clients. After lisiasing with them we decided to postpone the installation date to the following Monday when Storm Dennis was predicted to have passed. The weather was unlikely to attract many people to the beach anyway!
Installation happened on the Monday and just to be safe we added additional guys to the marquee because 40mph gusts were still forecast for the next day or two and the position down there is exposed.
All in all it’s not a bad place to be marquee-ing. A cup of tea from the cafe helps wioth the install and the views are second to none.
You can check out the video below – a timelapse of the install plus a narrated walk through of the marquee after completion, let us know what you think. Enjoy your half term holidays.
