The Queen’s seventy years as Monarch have seen many milestones which have become part of the story of her historic reign. Among them was the huge fire at Windsor Castle which became symbolic of a year when the Royal Family found its fortunes fading fast.
On the morning of November 20th 1992, a curtain brushed against a spotlight being used in restoration work in the Private Chapel of the ancient royal residence. It quickly caught light and within minutes, flames began to lick through the very heart of the famous castle.
The Fire Service was immediately alerted. At the height of the rescue operation, over 225 firefighters were involved with 39 appliances from surrounding counties called in. It was the first time in two decades that a fire in the Greater London area was so severe that it required over 30 engines to tackle it.
Despite the rescue effort, the fire spread quickly and soon, a human chain had formed to rescue the priceless royal artefacts held within the castle’s walls. Many items were already in storage as restoration work got under way. Although 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms, were destroyed in the fire, only two items were lost – a large portrait by Sir William Beechey that was too big to remove as the flames crept closer and a rosewood sideboard.
Six people, including five firefighters, suffered minor injuries as the blaze continued. The main fire burned for 12 hours although the secondary blazes took until the early hours of November 21st to extinguish.
A massive clean up operation began followed by a restoration project that would last five years and cost over £36 million. Debate around who would pay for the repair work led to The Queen announcing her plans to pay income tax and to open up Buckingham Palace to paying visitors.
The fire at Windsor became symbolic of the troubles faced by the Royal Family in 1992. Just days later, The Queen made one of the most noted speeches of her reign, in which she described the year as an ”annus horribilis”.
"; n.innerHTML = "window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'thumbnails-a', container:'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement:'Below Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix'});"; insertAfter(t, e); insertAfter(n, t) }injectWidgetByMarker('tbmarker');
