1992 Windsor Castle fire

The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within the next five years at a cost of £36.5 million, in a project led by the conservation architects Donald Insall Associates.

Initially, the Brunswick Tower was lit up, but lights soon began to flash indicating that the fire had spread quickly to neighbouring rooms.

The 30-foot-long (9.1 m) curtains eventually dropped to the floor and continued to burn, while those present hurriedly began removing paintings from the chapel, until the intense heat and raining embers forced them to leave at 11:32am.

Equipped with a Land Rover and pump tender, they were based in stables two miles south of the castle, and arrived on the scene at 11:41am.

An operation to save furniture and works of art involving castle staff, building contractors and one of the Queen's sons, Prince Andrew, had commenced in rooms adjacent to the fire.

By 1:30pm, tradesmen had created fire-breaks at the southern wall of the Green Drawing Room (at the end of St George's Hall on the east side of the Quadrangle) and at the northwest corner at Chester Tower, where joins the Grand Corridor.

[2] Apart from the several hundred firemen directly involved in the fire-fight,[5] staff and tradesmen helped the castle's fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps move furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments, including a 150-foot (46 m) long table and a 120-foot (37 m) long carpet from the Waterloo Chamber, to the safety of the castle's riding school.

It was an enormous operation: 300 clocks, a collection of miniatures, thousands of valuable books and historic manuscripts, and old master drawings from the Royal Library were saved.

The false ceiling in St George's Hall and the void for coal trucks beneath the floor had allowed the fire to spread.

Apartments burnt included the Crimson Drawing Room (completely gutted), the Green Drawing Room (badly damaged, though only partially destroyed by smoke and water) and the Queen's Private Chapel (including the double-sided 19th-century Henry Willis organ in the gallery between St George's Hall and Private Chapel, oak panelling, glass and the altar).

[7] Items from the Royal Collection lost include the Sir William Beechey equestrian portrait George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops, which at 13 feet (4 m) by 16 feet (5 m) was too large to remove;[8] an 18 ft (5.5 m) long 1820s sideboard by Morel and Seddon; several items of porcelain; several chandeliers; the Willis organ; and the 1851 Great Exhibition Axminster carpet was partly burnt.

[14] On 29 April 1993 it was announced that 70% of the cost would be met by charging the public for entry into the castle precincts and £8 for admission to Buckingham Palace for the next five years.

[15] The Queen contributed £2 million of her own money,[16] and she agreed to start paying income tax from 1993 onwards, making her the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s.

The architectural firm Donald Insall Associates was appointed by the Royal Household to take overall charge of the restoration, with Sidell Gibson dealing with the reconstruction of St George's Hall and the design of the new Lantern Lobby and Private Chapel.

There were to be new designs for the St George's Hall ceiling (with steel reinforcing beams in the roof) and East Screen, as well as the Queen's Private Chapel and the Stuart and Holbein Rooms.

Members included the David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie (Lord Chamberlain); Sir Hayden Phillips (Permanent Secretary of the Department of National Heritage); Norman St John-Stevas, Lord St John of Fawsley (Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission); Sir Jocelyn Stevens (Chairman of English Heritage); Frank Duffy (President of the Royal Institute of British Architects); and three senior palace officials.

Although criticised by some people who thought it lacked imagination, the architects believed that, given the history of the building and the surviving fabric, the new work had to be Gothic.

The state dining room gilded sideboard, 19 feet long and made out of rare rosewood and oak, was originally designed by Augustus Pugin in the 19th century.

The new chapel and adjoining cloisters were realigned to form a processional route from the private apartments, through an octagonal vestibule, into St George's Hall.

Downes's new roof is the largest green-oak structure built since the Middle Ages and is decorated with brightly coloured shields celebrating the heraldic element of the Order of the Garter; the design attempts to create an illusion of additional height through the Gothic woodwork along the ceiling.