CRASHES IN LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 14

CRASHES IN LONDON

.MANY FAN BE EXPECTED. London, Aug. 28. “’Frequent collapses of old buildings in central London may be expected in the next few years. “The collapse of t-he Beak Street and CorubiU building is only the beginning of a grave public menace. “.Many Loudon buildings are only being held together by plaster and the paper on the walls.” Sir John IV. Simpson, past president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, made this sensational statement yesterday in an interview with a Press representative. “The trouble is that hundreds of old buildings are being subjected to a strain that they were never intended to resist —namely, the incessant- vibration of the heavy traffic on hard roads,” said Sir John.

“Most of these old buildings are of bricks bound together Wit'll a crude cement of sand and lime, lime which was frequently of poor quality. “Now for about the last twenty years this easily disintegrated material has served as an absorber for the vibration of millions of tons of traffic. “IVhen the table in my office, fortyfive yards from the road, trembles at tdie passing of lorries and buses, it is hardly to be wondered that the mortar Which binds these old buildings together has been powdered to dust,. “I know buildings not far from Charing Cross, where the sand spills from the bricks every time a vehicle passes. “Again with these ancient structures party walls have been removed, windows enlarged, chimneys built and other alterations made, all of which help to weaken the fabric. “Another cause of the precarious state of these buildings is that the London subsoil is being literally honeycombed with wells, water, gas and telephone mains and sewers. “It is these, not the Tubes—they are too deep in the London clay—which drain the ground and'so have generally weakened the foundations of scores of London buildings. “It only needs a slight subsidence and they will erash down like houses of cards. “As the law stands at present, official L.. pection can only be made when alterations are in progress. The remedy therefore must for the present lie in the hands of the owners. “In view of the danger to public life, it is the duty of owners to have periodical surveys made of their property.” (It was stated in Parliament last month that over 5000 defective houses had been reported to the London County Council.)