Short answer: yes, Hawthorne works in Essex. We design, install, monitor and maintain CCTV, BS 5839-1 fire alarms, graded intruder alarms and access control for commercial sites across the county, including Southend and Thurrock. The work is run from our engineering base at Hellesdon Business Park in Norwich. We do not have an Essex office, and this page is honest about what that means for surveys, installs and callouts.
Getting to Essex from Norwich
Essex sits on the Norwich-to-London corridor, a route our engineers already travel for Suffolk jobs and for projects further south. North Essex is the nearest part: Colchester, Harwich and the Tendring peninsula are reached through Ipswich on the A12. Harlow, Saffron Walden and the land around Stansted come off the M11 after the A11. Chelmsford, Basildon, Southend and the Thames estuary are the far end of our working area.
In practice, installation quotes include travel, so the figure on the quote is the figure on the invoice. We group surveys with other work in the area where we can, which is why you may be offered a choice of dates rather than a visit tomorrow morning. For maintenance customers, the response time for faults is written into the contract before you sign, based on where the site is and how critical it is. Monitoring does not depend on distance at all: the alarm receiving centre handles a Basildon warehouse exactly as it handles a Norwich office.
Indicative prices
Guide bands for commercial CCTV before anyone has visited the site:
- Small system, 1 to 10 cameras: £1,500 to £3,000
- Medium system, 10 to 25 cameras: £3,500 to £7,500
- Large system, 25 cameras and above: £10,000 to £20,000 or more
Alarm monitoring starts from around £349 a year. The pricing calculator produces a range for fire, intruder and access control too, and the CCTV cost guide explains which choices push a price up or down.
What Essex businesses ask us for
Ports and logistics. Harwich International and the Port of Tilbury, with London Gateway alongside in Thurrock, feed a belt of warehouses and trailer parks along the A120, the A12 and the A13. These yards need perimeter detection that can tell a person from a fox, ANPR at the gatehouse and cameras watched overnight. For detector-activated CCTV that is remotely monitored, BS 8418 is the standard to build to, and it is the route to a police URN for a camera system. See commercial CCTV and remote CCTV monitoring.
Stansted and the M11. The business parks and freight units around London Stansted Airport and Great Dunmow, and the Harlow enterprise zone further south, mix offices, laboratories and airport supply-chain firms. The brief here usually starts with access control that records every door event, often on Paxton hardware, plus cameras at goods-in and reception.
Town-centre retail and offices. Chelmsford, Colchester, Basildon and Southend hold a lot of multi-let commercial stock. Typical jobs are camera coverage of doors and tills, a Grade 2 intruder alarm for each tenancy, and fire detection in landlord areas, with a written split of who is responsible for what.
Farms and rural business. Arable holdings across north Essex, the Dengie and the Rodings keep machinery, fuel and agrochemicals in buildings a long way from the nearest keyholder. Wireless Ajax detection with photo verification suits these sites: no trenching across a yard, and the receiving centre can see what set the alarm off before anyone drives out.
Care homes. Essex has a large care sector, with many homes along the coast at Clacton, Frinton and Southend. Residential care normally needs Category L1 detection under BS 5839-1, and many homes want nurse call installed and maintained by the same contractor. The design follows the fire risk assessment and the evacuation plan for residents who cannot leave unaided.
Fire alarms and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service covers the whole county, Southend and Thurrock included. Its published policy on unwanted fire signals says it will not provide an emergency response to calls generated by automatic fire alarm systems unless a 999 call confirms a fire or physical signs of fire, or the building has been granted an exemption. For most commercial premises, then, a monitored fire alarm will not bring a fire engine by itself.
That changes what monitoring is for. Its job is to get a keyholder or an engineer to site quickly, and your staff need a clear procedure: when the alarm sounds, someone checks, and if there is a fire they dial 999. If your building has sleeping occupants or another reason to seek exemption, raise it with the fire service directly. New systems and upgrades are designed to BS 5839-1:2025, and six-monthly servicing is what keeps false alarms down. See commercial fire alarm systems and the testing and servicing schedule.
Intruder alarms and Essex Police response
Essex Police issues a unique reference number (URN) for alarm systems that meet the national police policy on security systems. That requires an installer certified by a recognised inspectorate, an EN 50131 grade matched to the risk and your insurer's schedule, and confirmed signalling to an alarm receiving centre. Hawthorne is SSAIB registered (NORF034), with fire, intruder, CCTV, access control and monitored signalling in scope, and we submit the URN application as part of the installation. More detail is on our intruder alarms and 24/7 monitoring pages.
Accreditations
SSAIB (NORF034), ISO 9001, ISO 14001, Cyber Essentials and SafeContractor. We are a Hikvision Platinum Partner, a Paxton Gold Partner and an Ajax Approved Installer.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have an office or engineers based in Essex?
No. Our office, stores and engineering team are in Norwich, and Essex work is travelled to from there. We would rather say so plainly than list a local address we do not have.
Which parts of Essex do you cover?
All of it, including the unitary areas of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. North Essex is closest to us via the A12, west Essex via the M11, and the Thames estuary and south-east Essex are the furthest point of our regular area.
What response time will an Essex site get?
Response times are set out in the maintenance contract and agreed before you sign, based on the site's location and how critical the system is. Alarm and CCTV monitoring runs 24/7 regardless of where the building is.
Will the fire service attend if our fire alarm activates?
Usually not on the alarm signal alone. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service's published policy is not to send an emergency response to automatic fire alarm calls unless a 999 call confirms a fire or signs of fire, or the premises holds an exemption. Your fire procedure should assume a person on site checks and calls 999.
Can you protect a port-side or A13 logistics yard out of hours?
Yes. Perimeter analytics, gate ANPR and cameras designed to BS 8418 for remote monitoring let the control room verify an intrusion and escalate it to keyholders and, where a URN is held, the police.
Will you take over a system another company installed?
Often, yes. We survey it first, list anything that needs fixing to make it serviceable, and price that before you commit. Some panels are locked to the original installer and have to be replaced, and we tell you at survey if that applies.
Get an Essex quote
Try the pricing calculator for a range, or contact us to arrange a survey. Neighbouring coverage: Suffolk, Ipswich, Cambridgeshire and our home county of Norfolk.
About Hawthorne
Hawthorne is a commercial security and fire protection company headquartered at Unit 8 Alston Road, Hellesdon Business Park, Norwich NR6 5DS, serving East Anglia and the counties along the route to London. The business traded as Security Solutions Yes (SSY) until its acquisition in December 2024 and took the Hawthorne name in January 2026. Call 01603 425100.
Sources: Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, Unwanted Fire Signals (attendance policy for automatic fire alarm calls, checked 28 September 2026).
Last updated: September 2026