M&M’s World, London

Covering four floors, the M&M’s World in Leicester Square is the largest sweet shop in the world. The 35,000²ft store has 22 colours of M&M’s housed in the world famous interactive wall of chocolate and a large selection of other M&M’s merchandise. Visitors to the store are treated to a plethora of bright colours and fun – with an authentic 1963 double-decker bus! Families can be seen everywhere with big smiles on their faces, many taking photographs with the M&M’s characters.

The Disabled Refuge System:

• Two x 32-way control panels
• 27 disabled refuge remotes
• Linked to the fire alarm system
• Fire alarm override for system testing
• Battery backed for 24 hours on standby and 3 hours on full load

The Project:

Our VIGIL Omnicare system has been installed within the store – providing essential two way communication between disabled refuge areas and the main control panel. For extra security/safety, a second control panel has been installed in the adjacent ‘W’ hotel. This provides management/fire officers with two completely separate points from which to control an emergency evacuation.

There are many disabled refuge areas on the site and each one is served by an Omnicare standard DRS remote unit. The system has been installed using the ‘standby’ mode, preventing misuse during a normal day. Fully monitored at all times, the system will immediately become ‘active’ when triggered by the fire alarm panel (or by operation of the ‘break glass unit’). The break glass unit is also used to make the system live in order that safety officers can test the system at regular intervals (as required by BS5839-9).

Nick Baldwin, Marketing Director, Baldwin Boxall commented “What a fabulous project! This store is all about fun, there isn’t a corner of the store that’s been left unfilled – even the lift areas are interesting to view! It is clear, however, that security staff take the safety of all their visitors very seriously and the Omnicare installation is proof of this.”