Professor Tom Inns:

I’m Professor Tom Inns, Director of the Glasgow School of Art. If I take you back to the 23rd of May 2014 — that was the day of the fire. It was already set to be a busy day, but as soon as the fire broke out, it became our worst nightmare: a fire in the Mackintosh Building.

As the minutes and hours passed, the true magnitude of what had happened — and what it meant for us — became painfully clear.

We’re a higher education institution, so dealing with an insurance claim of this kind isn’t something we do regularly. It was immediately obvious that this was a major incident — a serious fire in a historically significant building. Managing that would be incredibly complex for us as an organisation.

As we do with all major challenges at the Art School, we turned to professionals — people with the expertise to help us navigate such a complex claim.

Harris Balcombe were with us very quickly. They provided a wide range of support, which evolved as we worked through the different stages of the claim. In the early days, they helped us frame our position, understand our insurance cover, and navigate the complex landscape of parties we’d need to deal with.

Their guidance was invaluable — especially around negotiation, precedent from previous large losses, and what to expect next. Their experience with serious fires meant they understood exactly how to translate the incident into the detailed language of our insurance policy.

Based on our experience, I would recommend Harris Balcombe to anyone faced with a similar situation. We didn’t have the knowledge or expertise to handle a claim of that scale. They were incredibly helpful, guiding us through the complexities of making such a significant insurance claim.

Stuart Diamond:

I’m Stuart Diamond, Senior Partner at Harris Balcombe LLP. I specialise in business interruption claims. My goal is to ensure that the insured receives every possible benefit under the policy to minimise losses.

This was a very complex project but also a rewarding one. We had to make sure every aspect of the school was protected — particularly in terms of loss of income and faculty. By fully utilising the increased cost of working provisions, we were able to safeguard the school from those risks.

My role was also to ensure that the professional team produced a specification that met the needs of the School. That was a challenging task given the nature and complexity of the Mackintosh Building. The team had to understand how the building was originally constructed and determine the full extent of the damage.

Smoke damage posed one of the biggest challenges. The acidic content of the smoke had penetrated deep into the building’s structure, threatening to cause long-term deterioration. We had to bring in specialists to assess and record the full extent of the contamination and determine the correct methods for treatment and restoration.

I’m very proud that we were involved. It was a privilege to work alongside the Glasgow School of Art and with so many talented professionals across the insurance and restoration industries. It was a complex project — but ultimately, an excellent job done by everyone involved.