This guest post was written by Peter Alexander, the curator and conductor of the Royal Glasgow Orchestra.  It tells the story of what happened when flooding affected large parts of the city where the orchestra is based.  This flooding caused severe damage to the building in which the practice and store their instruments, including large pieces of kit like drums, tubas, large stringed instruments and even their much adorned grand piano.  In order to save all of these precious bits of kit, some quick thinking was needed, and luckily a solution was found in the form of storage Glasgow in the city itself.  This is their story.

storage glasgow

How Storage Glasgow Saved the Day

So there we all are, myself and a few key members of the orchestra, standing in a inch deep puddle of water the stretched all across the floor of the concert hall.  Torrential winter rain had ruptured the roof and guttering system, and what looked like a full night of rain had made its way into the building and now lay resting on the floor. The day was already off to a great start.  We set about moving everything up and onto the stage, and towelled everything off so that it wasn’t dripping wet.  The biggest cause for concern was the grand piano, just purchased last year, and of considerable value.  It was on casters so the piano itself was out the water, but it was still deeply worrying.  It became clear that we would have to get all the instruments out of here, fast.  So we started looking at what options there were for storage Glasgow had to offer.

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Straight To It

Surprisingly we found a storage facility near by with large enough storage to cater to our needs.  We were able to take out a very flexible storage arrangement, since we weren’t sure when the concert hall would be back in business.  Once this was sorted it was time to call our moving specialists that we have moved in the past.  Moving a grand piano is not an easy task, and should not be approached lightly.  We use a old school company that know exactly what they are doing, and watching them move any large object is like watching ballet. 

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Arriving at the Storage Place

Even although we had the expert help of the moving company, a few of us still went along to help out where we could, and to generally oversee the moving process.  We didn’t want any of our precious instruments being damaged or stored incorrectly.  The people at the storage centre were also very helpful, and they were able to provide us with a solution that meant we only paid weekly for our storage needs.  We weren’t sure exactly how long we would need to keep everything there, or if we would be moving it any time soon.  The great thing about it was the fact that we have 24 hour access to everything as and when we need it.  The storage centre was also clean and tidy, so we knew our things were safe.