Birmingham-based security door specialist Warrior Doors has completed a major front-of-house redevelopment at the Lewisham campus of Southwark College.
The entire project, marking a significant six- figure investment, involved a full redesign and rebuild of the college’s main entrance, including the installation of four high-traffic automatic sliding security doors, new paving and structural adjustments to accommodate a roller shutter system.
The work was carried out during a half-term installation window to minimise disruption to students and staff.
The Lewisham campus forms part of NCG (Newcastle College Group), one of the UK’s largest education and training organisations, serving thousands of learners across London.
Warrior Doors was appointed main contractor following a competitive tender process, delivering both the design and installation of the new entrance infrastructure. A future-proofed entrance for a high-use campus was the critical brief.
The redevelopment involved pushing the building’s door line forward to create a more robust and controlled entrance environment capable of handling high daily footfall. (3,500 people every day). Alongside the four doors, the project included re-laying entrance slabs, integrating a roller shutter and completing internal finishing works to future-proof the access point.
Warrior Doors managing director Brett Barratt said: "College entrances experience constant use throughout the day, often with hundreds of people moving through the doors every hour.
“Too often, entrance systems in public buildings are treated as short-term installations rather than long-term infrastructure. Our approach at Warrior Doors is to design entrances that can withstand sustained daily use while maintaining reliability and security.
“Winning the Lewisham project through an open tender process was an important endorsement of our manufacturing capability and our ability to deliver complex installations within tight operational windows.”
From an engineering perspective, the project required careful design considerations to ensure the entrance would perform reliably on a busy London street frontage.
To avoid disruption to the college timetable, installation was coordinated around a half-term break, with engineers present on site to complete high-cycle testing before the entrance was handed over, meaning strict manufacture and installation deadlines were required.
The project was overseen on site by Warrior Doors’ installation team, working closely with the company’s engineering department to ensure the doors were fully tested before returning the entrance to operational use.
