GP Contracts are the country's leading supplier of wallbeds and related furniture for fire stations. Specifically designed for heavy-duty contract use, GP Contracts' Fire Station (FS) range of all-steel, 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical' 'Wiskaway' Wallbeds, are fully counterbalanced and fitted with automatically opening and retracting legs, for safe, smooth and easy operation.

They come complete with tough integral housings in a range of attractive, durable finishes, including MFC, plastic laminates and veneers.

Illustrated here are some of the 14 'Horizontal 'Wiskaway' 6000 and 'Vertical' 'Wiskaway' 7500 Wallbeds supplied and installed in the fire fighters' dormitory, watchroom, junior officers' quarters and officers' accommodation, at the London Fire Brigade's new Woodford Green Fire Station in 1991.

The housings were all finished in a Light Ash veneer, with contrasting brown Hewi pull handles and the 'Vertical' 'Wiskaway' 7500 Wallbeds were provided with a matching, ventilated, 4-compartment bedding locker 7600, for the four watches to store their sleeping bags and pillows in.

With space becoming an increasingly precious commodity, more and more Fire and Rescue Authorities are turning to wallbeds to help make the most efficient use of their available facilities. This is especially the case with large city-centre fire stations.

By folding the wallbeds out of the way when they are not required, the space can be used for other activities during the day.

Typical areas where wallbeds are used include watchrooms/watch offices, where a bed would be in the way during the day, fire fighters' dormitories, which are often used to double as lecture rooms and/or recreation rooms (e.g. with a folding ping pong table, etc) during the day and officers' rooms, which frequently need to double as offices, or interview rooms during the day.

Even where space is not critical, the use of wallbeds may still be desirable on health and safety grounds. Thus, for instance, carrying folding beds into and out of watchrooms every night/morning can considerably increase the risk of accidents and a wallbed may therefore be the safest option, even where there is no space problem.

Our 'Wiskaway'^® 7500 and 6000 Wallbeds, at Woodford Green Fire station, in East London