Two 18th century Chelsea houses collapse entirely ‘during basement conversion’

[Duncan2]

The footage on Youtube appears to identify the construction company involved.The sign says something about them being considerate constructors.They might have to rethink that slogan?

 

[David Clapson]

I used to know a guy who applied for permission to dig a 60 foot deep basement in Kensington so he could have a pool with a high diving board. I think he wanted a car lift as well. He converted a hotel into a single man's dwelling.

 

[kenny g]

To be honest I don't think perfect straight brickwork really matters much, it's an obsession that comes out of college courses where it's a bit like london cabbies learning there's only one right way from Piccadilly to Stockwell, when there are about 5 ways that are perfectly good. Also the house-in-a-box style of mass-building where you want to get everything even so the doors and windows just slide straight in without any filling needed. There's loads of totally erratic brick-built structures all over the country, many of them hundreds of years old which have stood up perfectly well. So long as you have a some kind of bond holding things together periodically, a decent mix and a horizontal line, it'll stand up fine. This is partly why inner and outer leaves on walls have such different appearances, brickies mostly know the look of the outer is essentially decorative but it's no stronger than the inner.

The fetish over straight bricks is a bit Victorian really, order and the bureaucratisation of daily life in order to increase speed and productivity.

I'll get off me hobby horse now.

Structural integrity as a fetish. FFS liberalism gone mad!

 

[teuchter]

It is the result of appalling workmanship/dodgy builders.

We don't know what it's the result of.

 

[co-op]

Structural integrity as a fetish. FFS liberalism gone mad!

Lol. The brickwork on the front of these house that just collapsed was perfectly straight and tidy enough to make any bricklaying instructor or assessor cream himself. Didn't stop anything collapsing though.

 

[High Voltage]

So. Aaahh! Crossrail, then?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I hope the builders have good insurance.

 

[WouldBe]

We don't know what it's the result of.

Most likely undermining the foundations.

 

[Teaboy]

The footage on Youtube appears to identify the construction company involved.The sign says something about them being considerate constructors.They might have to rethink that slogan?

Considerate Constructers is a industry wide scheme to change the image of construction its not about the quality of workmanship or whether the building will still be there in the morning. Contractors who sign up to it have to follow a code and have a mechanism to deal with complaints.

Its basically trying to stop wolf whistling and other anti-social behaviour from site workers and by and large its worked but it started from a low point.

As for what's happened here this is absolutely a never incident and the only good thing to come out of it is that no one was killed or injured.

 

[19force8]

This sort of thing happens more than people realise. A common feature urban development involves filling the gaps in Victorian terraces. It's pretty much a lottery when you work with the foundations of old buildings. Just because they've stood for a century or more doesn't mean they're robust enough to be messed with.

In the last few years I know of two cases in my old home town. One where they knocked down a former workshop used as a garage to make space for a new house and the wall of the adjacent house fell off the night after the garage came down. The other where they excavated for new footings next to an end terrace house which promptly collapsed.

 

[Mordi]

Once again it's one law for the West London elite and another for the enterprising urban burrower William Lyttle. I'd go so far as to suggest that more homes of the rich could be improved by a thorough sapping campaign.

 

[blossie33]

I remember Hackney's Mole Man
No longer with us now.