Foot Perfect at BBC Broadcasting House

Martin Collins is the official surface choice for the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, supplying surfaces for their arenas in Austria as well as for their UK tour.

So when the SRS were asked to perform for the BBC’s One Show outside BBC Broadcasting House in the heart of London, it took a military style operation to ensure that these magnificent white dancing horses could perform.

With only twelve hours to go until the live broadcast to over 4 million people, the team from Martin Collins arrived at the top of London’s Regent Street at 7am. They were tasked with installing a small riding arena on the Piazza right outside Broadcasting House. The obvious problems such as traffic and being in the centre of London were challenging enough, but they were faced with creating this arena in a very small confined area that also had a weight restriction. They could not drive the huge trucks delivering the surface onto the actual Piazza so the two lorries had to tip the 40 tonnes of surface at the entrance. After a membrane was laid to prevent the arena seeping into the cracks in the Piazza and also protect the area, the crew of 25 started to move the 40 tonnes surface to the marked out arena by wheelbarrow! Using 15 wheelbarrows and a mini excavator and a lot of true Martin Collins spirit, the team moved the whole mountain and it was laid and ready at 11.30am ready for when the horses arrived at midday. One of the questions from a BBC News presenter as he walked by on his way to the office was:

“So how do you know when a surface is actually level?”

Fiona Bruce who is a real horse enthusiast was also astonished at the technical expertise explained to her by Nicholas Collins, whose family have been the number one arena surface manufacturers for over 40 years.

“The surface was distributed by wheelbarrow and then levelled off to approximately 175mm using a Dibb, which is a depth gage and then it was levelled with hand rakes compacted and trimmed level with the mini excavator.”