Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market runs from Thursday 21st November until Sunday 22nd December in the heart of the historic city centre and Crowdguard were requested by the Cathedral to provide hostile vehicle mitigation.

The market is widely recognised as one of the best Christmas Markets in Europe set against the beautiful backdrop of the Cathedral and with over 100 chalets to explore. In 2018 it was voted the second best market in the UK by Booking.com and highlighted as one of the top eight Christmas Markets in Europe by the New York Post. The market is themed in the style of a traditional German Christmas Market and reportedly attracts around half a million visitors each year. The main market area consisting of traditional wooden chalets surrounds an ice rink and brings that Alpine Christmas feeling into the heart of Hampshire.

The Cathedral had used Surface Guard previously directly through the manufacturer ATG and wanted to ensure the same level of protection for visitors at this years market, so as an official approved deployment partner for ATG we were only too pleased to assist. Following a site visit two locations were identified and our London deployment depot were tasked with installing Surface Guard at the market, which by the installation date had transformed from a leafy grassed area to a complete Alpine Village. Surface Guard was the ideal choice for this venue with the high crowd densities expected over the duration of the deployment.

Surface Guard blended seamlessly into the background and the Crowd Guard Knights felt at home in the historic Anglo-Saxon and Norman surroundings.