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Crash!

SueEllen

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Homes evacuated as Chelsea town houses collapse - BBC News

Homes were evacuated after two neighbouring four-storey town houses collapsed in west London.

Emergency services were called to Durham Place in Chelsea at 23:35 GMT on Monday where the buildings, which were being redeveloped, had fallen in.

A 25m (82ft) cordon was put in place and about 40 people were told to leave nearby properties while drone teams and police dogs searched the rubble.

No injuries have been reported, London Fire Brigade said.

Station Commander Jason Jones said there had been "a total collapse of the buildings from the roof to ground level".

He added: "Nobody is thought to have been inside the building at the time of the collapse."

The Met Police said those living in nearby houses had been evacuated "as a precaution".

Local roads remain closed and police cordons are still in place.


The collapsed buildings form part of a terrace of houses which were built in the late 1700s opposite land owned by the Royal Hospital Chelsea - the home of the Chelsea Pensioners.

A seven-bedroom house in the block sold for £16m last year, according to property website Rightmove.


[Edited to say: Keeps happening around London as the builders don't realise old houses have crap or no foundations.]
 
I bet they were excavating a huge basement. That seems to be the most frequent reason for London building collapses.

Old houses built in the 1700s and 1800s were only built to carry the weight of some light furniture and a few people living in them. If any improvements or additions are going to take place then an internal steel frame need to be added in the first instance. In this case the pics show that there has been no reinforcing prior to the works taking place.

I have been in several central London homes after renovation with support walls removed and no extra structure added. It is a miracle how the buildings stay up.
 
Last edited: 15:12
Old houses built in the 1700s and 1800s were only built to carry the weight of some light furniture and a few people living in them. If any improvements or additions are going to take place or if MF is visiting then an internal steel frame need to be added in the first instance. In this case the pics show that there has been no reinforcing prior to the works taking place.

I have been in several central London homes after renovation with support walls removed and no extra structure added. It is a miracle how the buildings stay up.

FTFY
 
There was a nutjob on one of Kev's programmes who was doing that until he/she/it found a spring or stream or something.

I forget how they got out of that but it Cost A Lot IIRC.

Here you go:

Deep concerns: the trouble with basement conversions | Life and style | The Guardian

On another program I saw a few years back a woman had brought a basement flat. It had been newly done up by a "property developer" and sewage pipes were leaking into her home so she couldn't live in it.
 

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