Monday 18 March 2024

Highwalk still leaks

Further confirmation that the City's mega projects to strip back and relay the surface of the highwalks was a poor choice.

Rather than establish a boring on-going maintenance programme to fix the drains and carry out essential repairs the City awarded themselves a capital project to completely resurface the western end of northern Barbican highwalks.  The project took ages, inconvenienced residents for years and cost a fortune.  In the end the highwalk looks little better than it did before (some say worse) and the water penetration problems, the excuse for the project in the first place, remain.

The City are currently trying to justify a re-run of this disaster at the eastern end of the northern part of the Barbican highwalks, Ben Jonson Highwalk and its neighbours.

The number one priority in this context should be to fix the drains as part of a long term on-going maintenance programme ... but no.

And then the City acts all surprised when water penetration is *still* causing problems on the western highwalk illustrating that the resurfacing project was, in many ways, worse than useless.

As reported in the latest Barbican Estate Bulletin:

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Podium repair work - Beech Gardens


Property Services have been carrying out work to resolve a leak into the reception area of Nuffield Health. An area of podium tiling had been lifted and waterproofing work carried out to cure the leak.

Museum of London: Move progress

 Here is an item from the BBC about how the packing is going in the Museum of London's move from London Wall to Smithfield:

Click to read the article



Wednesday 6 March 2024

Noisy pavement work @ 1 Golden Lane

Noisy pavement work started this morning in front of 1 Golden Lane (which was the UBS building).

The City must have at least given the go-ahead for this.

Did they bother to let nearby residents know in advance?

Nope.

Sunday 3 March 2024

1 Golden Lane - A post demolition pause before the build?

The good new is that we have the atrocious noise of the demolition behind us.  The less good news is that the construction phase is due to begin and this will bring a whole new set of aural delights.

But it is not clear when the construction phase will begin.  Mc Gee have completely vacated the site, even the scaffolding has gone (a bit surprising).

So, time to enjoy a bit of quiet while at the same time hoping that we won't be left with a half completed building project as a neighbor for too long!

Here is the farewell note from Mc Gee:
___

Good morning,

As you may have seen we have been demobilising on the 1 Golden Lane site as our phase of works are now complete. We officially left the site on Friday 23rd February 2024.

At this moment in time, the contractor that will be carrying out the next phase of works at 1 Golden Lane has not been confirmed. However once confirmed we will have a handover where things including neighbourly matters and sensitive receptors will be discussed.

In the meantime, if you need to contact anyone regarding 1 Golden Lane, please contact Thomas Woolf, t.woolf@gardiner.com.

Please can you confirm If you would like me to pass on your email address to the client so they can give it to the next contractor, to include their mailing list. Until we receive approval from you, we will not share your email address.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you for your patience, understanding and feedback whilst we have carried out our work. We appreciate fully how our works impacted you at times, and by incorporating your feedback we have remained committed to carrying out our project in the least impactful way possible.

It has been lovely speaking to and meeting with so many of you and I wish you the best for the future.

Thank you from the whole of the McGee 1 Golden Lane team!

Kind regards

Friday 23 February 2024

1 Silk Street - Culture Survey

I suspect a "culture survey" is the latest means by which developers hope to placate residents while they press ahead with what they wanted to do in the first place.

Here we go ... this is via the Ben Jonson House Group:
___

Dear Neighbours,


1 SILK STREET – CONSULTATION

The developer of Silk Street has appointed the multi-disciplinary culture agency called Things Made Public to "devise a site-specific cultural and community offer within 1 Silk Street, genuinely driven by consultation with local people." We only received the info a day or so ago, hence the tight deadline for responses.

As part of phase 1 the agency decided to:
do a culture survey targeted at residents of the Barbican Estate and Golden Lane Estate,
ask for people's details so that they can get in touch to do some further in-person consultation,
target those that haven't had the opportunity to express their views.

There are some important questions which may influence the types of facilities considered by the developer of the site. If you have the time, please take part in the survey by 26th February.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SJ2RB3X

Best wishes,

<Ben Jonson House>

 

 

 

 



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Tuesday 13 February 2024

Temporary Window Repairs

From the BEO:

Dear Residents,

Please see attached communication updates from the Barbican Project Manager, Graham Sheret, with regard to temporary window repairs to your three blocks.

This work will start tomorrow, Wednesday 14 February, on John Trundle Court and Bunyan Court. The team intend to complete the temporary repairs within 4 weeks. Please note this work is weather dependant.