Cleaning centre stage

30 June 2011

One week English National Ballet dancers pirouette and spin to the songs of Gershwin, a month later Grammy-award winning Janet Jackson will make her appearance at the iconic Royal Albert Hall.

It’s all part of the varied theatre season at the world famous Grade I listed entertainment venue.

Behind the scenes, the Emprise cleaning team perch on the sidelines, preparing to sweep through the 5,500-seat theatre, which hosts over a million visitors annually and has around 360 events a year.

The building, which opened in 1871 is a multipurpose site, not only hosting music but exhibitions, public meetings, scientific conversations and award ceremonies.

“The venue has to be spic and span whether it’s a ballet performance taking place, cleaning up beer after a rock festival, or chasing Maltesers after a performance,” says Jenny Bates, director of operations at Emprise.

The Emprise team won the three-year contract in October 
2010 taking over from the OCS team. This involved the transfer of OCS staff and services; in addition, the venue’s in-house staff transferred to Emprise.

Cleaning provision needed to be more consistent and completed to a higher level befitting a world-class venue. In practice, this meant an increased focus on brass, specialist floor cleaning and particular attention paid to red velvet coverings in the theatre. Overall, the Emprise team were more responsible for inputting extra care and attention to the smaller details in this grand building.

Some staff members were Tupe’d over but the changeover has been a smooth ride, says Bates who is largely responsible for overseeing the contract and the 37 staff.

With often three performances a day running up until Christmas, cleaners have to be swift and thorough in their work.

As well as providing daily and specialist cleans, part of the service development process that will change the shape of the contract over the coming months will involve moving to a night shift between 10:30pm each day through to 7:00am. The clean involves two spot cleans, servicing toilets, the cafe areas and cleaning services all around the seating areas such as the boxes, restaurants, function rooms and VIP areas. Moving to nights will give the Emprise team more flexibility, explains executive director operations, Lesley Shearman.

But the team is equipped to provide many other services within the contract including cleaning services for administration areas, a litter-picking service and brass cleaning – the latter proving to 
be an intense task.

Since the contract change, greener cleaning products have been introduced and it’s all about productivity, says Bates.

One of the most dramatic changes in the contract renewal was investing in new technology to improve productivity. A cleaning robot is used in the lower gallery. The Robo 40 is programmed to clean and takes under three hours instead of six hours with a mop and bucket. The robot can clean up to 1200 square metres (2916.7 square feet) unsupervised for up to seven hours and its battery recharge allows a double run every day, leaving the team to concentrate on other areas.
But like all their clients hit by the arts cuts, financial challenges always present issues and Bates explains it’s all about saving money where they can for clients.

The National Theatre
While the team over at the Royal Albert Hall tackle their vast gallery with a nifty robot on the case, over at the National Theatre on Southbank, Emprise contract manager Paul Alden contends with the clean-up of artificial snow used in the recent production of Greenland.
The venue stages over 20 shows annually in three auditoriums – the Olivier, Lyttelton and Cottesloe Theatres with up to six productions in repertory at any one time.

Emprise took over in the cleaning contract in 2008 after the theatre decided to re-structure the contract. The theatre had previously managed cleaning contractors in-house.

“It’s a phenomenal place to work and you don’t worry about the things you would worry about 
with office cleaning. There is far more variety here,” says Alden, who was previously a contract manager at the British Museum.

“Not every job would provide the opportunity to enjoy lunch in the staff canteen sitting next to great actresses like Vanessa Redgrave,” he adds.

But it’s no easy task maintaining the nooks and crannies of the vast 1960s listed concrete building, admits Alden. The building is often subject to graffiti attacks and specialist cleaners are called in. The clean-up of vomit and weekly chewing-gum-under-seats fiasco, alongside occupancy issue headaches, provides a lot to contend with.

The contract, which was recently extended for another year, involves completing a morning core clean before the theatre opens at 9.30am and the provision of support throughout the day, seven days a week. The venue remains open until 11pm to tackle reactive works.

Alden also manages and delivers cleaning services including window cleaning, kitchen deep cleans and housekeeping across the National’s three theatres and associated offices, dressing rooms, toilets, catering outlets and front of 
house areas.

Meeting the National’s environment objectives requires the team to deliver a waste management/recycling programme. None of their waste goes to landfill, says Alden.
“It’s amazing the level of cleaning required working in a repertory theatre, but with the building in full use all day we’re kept on our toes.”

Delfont Mackintosh Theatre Group
One famous actress asked for the plants in her dressing room to be polished, reveals Danny Murray, Emprise’s key account manager at the Queen’s Theatre.

“We are happy to carry out their requests and we are only too aware of the specific needs of some of the West End stars.”

Emprise has been looking after Delfont Mackintosh since 1999, cleaning their West End theatres including historic buildings like the Queens Theatre, the Noel Coward Theatre and the recently refurbished Prince of Wales Theatre. “The theatre managers are very demanding because of the nature of their business and standards need to be extremely high,” reveals Murray.

The theatres each present an individual challenge because of their age, their location and their individual requirements. Some of the theatres are fully carpeted, some have marble floors and some are ornate with brass.

With this in mind, the team provide daily cleaning including specialist brass and wood cleaning as well as regular deep cleaning to carpets. Vacuums with extending arms are used on a daily basis. It takes a lot of time to keep these specialist surfaces clean, particularly during the winter months when audiences stomp through the theatre.

A new audit system has been installed to track performance in all of the theatres Emprise manage services in. At the flick of a button, a small handheld PDA system can throw up all kinds of information, producing reports and historic information to find out what has been done well and other tasks which require improvement. Persistent offenders include keeping brass clean and carpet nosings.

The eight cleaners at the Queens Theatre include supervisor Marco Florez who has been at the theatre since 1998.

“People take ownership of the building and it becomes more than just a job. We find that it is the overall theatre experience that brings people back to us. This may be the way they are greeted and also the quality of the production but we feel that the atmosphere and cleanliness play a crucial part in maintaining the magic of visiting the theatre.”