Two 14 Storey Fulham Tower Blocks to Be Demolished

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Hartopp and Lannoy Points 'riddled with mould and fire safety failings'

Two tower blocks riddled with mould and fire safety failings off Dawes Road in Fulham will be demolished and replaced by new social housing, Hammersmith & Fulham Council has promised.

And residents who said they were 'terrified' to hear of the buildings' defects are now looking forward to leaving the towers and moving into to new homes.

It comes nearly two years after structural surveys of Hartopp Point and Lannoy Point on Pellant Road in Fulham found that fire and smoke could easily spread through the 14 storey concrete buildings.

The surveys, carried out after the Grenfell disaster, found walls inside flats had long-standing problems with cracks. The cracks undermined 'compartmentation'— where individual rooms should be secure enough to stop fire and smoke spreading between them. Surveyors from Arup said the 1960s buildings are vulnerable to collapse in the event of a gas explosion, leading to a ban on keeping gas cannisters.

Fire risk assessments also found problems with 'damp and water ingress' in many of the blocks’ 112 flats. A team of 24/7 fire wardens has been present on the estate to assist with evacuations since November 2017.

Violet and Redvers Blake, aged 90 and 93, have lived in Lannoy Point ever since they got married, after meeting at the former St Luke’s Hospital where they both worked on the wards.

Mrs Blake told the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We’re getting through it now but it was a scary time. We’ve lived here something like 60 years. We will miss it but we have to go. It’s the first place we lived together. It’s been our home for so long, so we will feel sorry."

The couple said they will soon be moved to sheltered accommodation about a mile away.

A mother of three girls and a boy, aged nine to 16, spoke of her 'relief' as she and her husband were in the middle of moving house.

"I’m really delighted to be moving. It’s a big relief that this is over," she said. "I was terrified and we didn’t feel secure here when we heard the buildings weren’t safe. Especially after Grenfell."

She added: "We’re moving home today [April 30] to a house in Dolby Road. It will have a garden and our own front door. It’s really brilliant."

The decision to demolish the two towers was passed by the Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s cabinet members on Monday, April 29.

A report published ahead of the meeting said: "There are no alternative options open to the Council. In accordance with Arup’s advice, the council needs to address these issues by the winter of 2020."

It adds: "Although [refurbishment] works would make the buildings safe… the council would still be left with a defective asset requiring high on-going maintenance costs."

The report said refurbishing the towers would cost £16.5 million, while demolishing and building new homes in partnership with a third party provider would cost £8.7 million.

During the cabinet meeting, director of housing Jo Rowlands said: “We will work with providers to see if we can create more social housing. We will be getting an 80ish% subsidy of rent, a social rent."

Council leader Stephen Cowan said: "So those homes would not be at the ill-advised term ‘affordable rent’ which is rents at 80% of market rate. These new homes would be the other way around, about 25% of market rate."

The report also said residents from the two towers 'overwhelmingly' support the option to demolish them. Though it was said that 58 of the 112 flats are now empty, as many households have moved and at least two leaseholders sold their flats.

The council also also set out plans for re-housing its tenants from the blocks. And resident leaseholders will be offered the value of their flats with a 10% homeless payment.

Other estates built with the same concrete 'large panel system' as Hartopp and Lannoy are also facing demolition or redevelopment. The Broadwater Farm estate in Haringey borough faces potential demolition. The Heathside and Lethbridge estate has seen six buildings demolished
The Ledbury estate’s four towers in Peckham, Southwark, will be refurbished.

Owen Sheppard - Local Democracy Reporter

May 3, 2019