Don't flush those wet wipes!

From the BEO:

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Please consider what you flush
 

Unfortunately this week has seen another pipe blockage occur on the estate. As you can imagine these incidents are very unpleasant and stressful for both the residents affected and the staff who work to rectify the issue.

Please consider what you are flushing down your toilets, wipes are one of the biggest causes of blockages in pipes, and go on to cause flooding on the estate.

Wipes are often labelled as ‘flushable’, but regardless of any claims on packaging, wipes should never be flushed down the toilet as they are not compatible with our plumbing system. We kindly request that you, your guests, subtenants, or private cleaners refrain from flushing them down the toilet.

Our plumbing system, equipped with cast iron pipes, is particularly susceptible to snagging on anything other than toilet paper due to naturally occurring material imperfections which can easily lead to blockages and subsequent issues. The consequences of these blockages extend beyond inconvenience, causing significant distress to our lower floor neighbours and necessitating extensive and costly clean-up efforts by our contractors and staff.

To prevent the risk of future incidents, we urge all residents to ensure wipes are disposed of in bins rather than flushing them down the toilet. This simple action will greatly contribute to maintaining a pleasant living environment and drive down avoidable sewerage repair recharge costs for all residents. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

White Cross Street Ramp Closed Thu 21st March

From the BEO:

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Dear Residents,

I am writing to inform you that the ramp on White Cross Street by Staircase 64, Ben Jonson House, will be closed tomorrow (Thursday 21 March), all day, due to repairs taking place on the drains and associated pipework.

There will be barriers in place as well as signs directing to the ramp round the back of Ben Jonson as an alternative.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind Regards,
Barbican Estate Office

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.

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:

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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 23^rd 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

Beware Slippery Surfaces!

From the BEO
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Dear Residents,

Due to the considerable change in temperatures, there is a lot of condensation that has formed on the walls, ceilings, glass and floors. This is making the floors & staircases very slippery. We have asked our cleaning staff to concentrate on mopping the floors as best they can.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough hazard signs to put up in every entrance. So, we are advising caution when moving around the Estate. Please note the podium and car parks are also slippery in places that don't usually get wet.

Kind regards

Barbican Estate Office

Big trouble with 4thUtility - or how we lost the Internet for a few days

  In August this year 4th Utility took over from VFM as the guardians of the fibre network on the estate.

Last week, from midnight to 04:00 on Tuesday 16th November, 4th Utility undertook some maintenance work.  The time window was planned well in advance, but the maintenance did not go at all as planned; everyone on the estate who uses the 4th Estate fibre service lost their connection to the Internet for a number of days.

What was expected to be a significant but straightforward maintenance task turned into the complete replacement of server room equipment which in turn required the replacement of every router on the estate.  To their credit, 4th Estate quickly realised the magnitude of the issue and asked their Manchester based staff to get on a train to London right away, and to take along replacement server gear and hundreds of new routers.

It turns out that we really do depend on the Internet these days.  Some were unable to watch the film they wanted to see, some were unable to work, some even lost valuable work.  People certainly wanted to get back online as quickly as possible, hundreds of residents queued to get their new router at noon on Wednesday:

At the head of the queue was a desk where 4th Estate staff (Brand Ambassadors!) were handing out new routers and noting which flat got which device.

Over the next day most new routers were connected.  Mostly residents were able to unplug the old and connect the new by themselves, for some a house call from the 4th Estate staff was needed to get things going.  4th Estate staff manned their desk on the highwalk from Wednesday to the following Sunday

The cause of the problem was something like this:  The equipment inherited by 4th Estate has been serving residents for some time and was very much in need of an upgrade.  The maintenance planned for the 16th of November was to keep the current equipment going a little longer while the larger upgrade was rolled out.  The manufacturer of the current equipment felt that the plan, yanking out and replacing some of the equipment, was safe because the service should just fall back to secondary systems ... but what happened instead was the a total failure.

Given the total failure the easiest thing to do would be to install like-for-like replacements of the broken systems, but the nearest were in Dubai!  So, 4th Estate decided to bring forward the larger upgrade and replace the broken kit with brand new server room systems and replace every connected router too.  Quite a task.

Now that the Internet service is restored for most, if not all, 4th Estate customers I'm sure "lessons have been learned" (again).  The biggest for me is to have a fallback plan for our Internet connection (e.g. a mobile hotspot and a data SIM) and of course to make sure all our valuable data is backed up.

Water tank work - from 29th Nov

From the BEO:

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Cold Water Storage Tank Works - Ben Jonson House

Smart Managed Solutions working with City of London Corporation will be carrying out urgent works on the cold-water storage tanks over a two-day period, between Monday 29 November - Tuesday 14 December.

Residents affected will be sent a letter with precise dates and times of the disruption.

On day 1 there will be disruptions to properties between 10am - 4pm.

During this time, we will require you to NOT use any of the bathroom and bathroom fed services, this includes washing machines or dish washers ‘fed’ from the bathroom facilities.

On the second day engineers will carry out non-disruptive remedial completion works from 10am to 4pm.

Residents may wish to store a bath full of water for flushing the toilet on the day of disruptions. This will include opening/turning on of any bathroom taps between 10am until 4pm and the flushing of toilets from 10am – 4pm. Due to the nature of the work involved this may overrun, but you will be informed by our operatives.

Mains drinking water will not be affected.

Every effort will be made to keep noise levels to a minimum during the hours of 10am – 4pm

SMART operatives will visit a number of properties once the work is complete to ensure services have resumed as normal.

Following recent Government advise relating to COVID-19 all engineers will be wearing the correct and necessary PPE. Communal areas that workmen have to access with be sanitised before and after use.

If you require any further information please contact the Project Manager, Steve Hope on 07577 967907, Smarts main office on 01268 206188 or the City Project Manager.

Builders Yard - with us until October

The 28th May newsletter from the BEO has an item about "Public Realm Works" which will upgrade the pavements all the way around the new Denizen flats. The builders yard for this project, and the associated mess and noise, is located beneath Ben Jonson House on Golden Lane.

The project is due to last 21 weeks. So we can expect the builders yard to be around until October this year, or longer.

This is clearly quite a large project.  There will even be regular project update email messages if you sign up (see below).  It's a shame the people running the project didn't engage with residents before deciding to export the static noise and mess of the project from the work location around the Denizen to a builders yard beneath our homes.

Here is the notice from the newsletter:
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Public Realm Works in Fann, Viscount and Brackley Streets and Golden Lane

The works around the Denizen development at 43 Golden Lane started on Monday 24 May and will be delivered in phases to minimise impact on movement in the area, with one way system operating in Brackley, Viscount and Fann streets to accommodate vehicular access.

The works are contained to the footways around the newly completed development at 43 Golden Lane and to the works on Zebra crossing in Golden Lane. The full duration of these works is approximately 21 weeks.

For more information about the project visit www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/goldenlaneworks or email citypublicrealm@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Download the plan of works, you can also sign up to receive our regular project updates directly to your mailbox.

Builders Yard beneath Ben Jonson House

A builders yard has been established beneath Ben Jonson House in support of works happening on Fann Street.

The builders yard is shown in the image below which shows Golden Lane from beneath Ben Jonson House up to, and beyond Fann St.

There are temporary huts on the west side of Golden Lane close to the main exhibition hall entrance, on the other side of Golden Lane there is a waste storage area.

Waste is taken from the work site on Fann St to the street beneath Ben Jonson House by a dumper truck (which you can see heading south in the image).  The dumper truck tips the waste on the road.  A waste lorry (parked next to the waste heap in the photo) uses a grabber to scrape up the waste and load into the back of the lorry.  The lorry scrapes up the waste which is there when it arrives and then hangs around, engine running, while the dumper truck makes additional trips until the lorry is full.

The newly blocked junction between Beech St and Golden Lane is clearly a very handy place for 'considerate contractors' to dump their stuff.

Is this a wild-cat builders yard or has the City approved it?  Either way, what was the process by which the area beneath our homes was chosen to host this noisy yard, and why has this come as (yet another) complete surprise?

The yard in action

The project engineer for these works is Simon Roliston (sp?) on  +44 207 332 1588

The on-site person in charge is Bradley on +44 788 257 2461

... and rather than the 08:00 morning serenade of the dumper truck being started, could they perhaps use an electric dumper truck?  Surely that would make sense with the builders yard being right next to the ULEZ of the Beech Street tunnel?
 

Noisy Emergency Works by sc64 (the Waitrose end door)

From the BEO

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Dear Residents

Barbican Centre drainage works at street level 

Whitecross Street staircase 64 Ben Jonson House

We have been advised by the Barbican Centre that they have had to arrange some urgent drainage clearance works (jetting) in the sprinkler plant room accessed from Whitecross Street. This room is located at street level at staircase 64 Ben Jonson House adjacent to the resident’s entrance into the block. The contractor will be using a generator and jetting tools both of which will create noise whilst the works are done.

It may be necessary for the contractors to close one end of the walkway (this is the walkway below the ramp, just past the Cote restaurant) whilst keeping one route open to the Ben Jonson s/c 64 street level door allowing residents to still come and go, they will  have signage to direct residents to the other way in/out if necessary.

The contractor will be on site on Friday 4 December morning carrying out the works to clear the drains, they hope that can have the drains completed and the works completed in one day.

If you have any further queries, please do contact me.

Yours Sincerely

Rebecca Bello
House Officer

City of London Barbican Estate Office, 3 Lauderdale Place, London. EC2Y 8EN

Switchboard 020 7029 3902

email barbican.estate@cityoflondon.gov.uk
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/beo

Tree Hacking - The Denizen wins again

The tree at the corner of Brackley St and Golden Lane is being chopped up.  It's a 'rebalancing' apparently.  Needed because branches had to be removed for the new Denizen building.

I understand that Open Spaces didn't realize how close the proposed Denizen was to the tree during the planning process but they now see the need to dramatically hack the tree back.

The tree early in the hacking.  Hacking van on street.

Post hacking

Balcony Inspections - Wed 15th & Thu 16th

This card came through my door today.  The chap posting them confirmed that it should really say July and not June, so the inspections will be tomorrow and the day after (15th & 16th July).

For 06 read 07

Beech Street Tunnel - Zero Emission Scheme

The City sent out a letter dated the 5th Feb (see below) and held a meeting on the 12th Feb to announce their plan to make Beech St a 'Zero emission street'.

Barbican residents with cars will find that the routes from their homes will be changed.  This affects users of the Ben Jonson / Breton house car parks in particular as they will only be able to access the car park from the north along Golden Lane.  Golden Lane will be blocked at the southern end for all vehicles, even 100% electric ones ... so no way to drive home via Beech St.

Busses which deliver pupils to the Prior Weston complex entrance on Golden Lane will also have to approach from the north and leave to the north, somehow making a u-turn at the southernmost part of Golden Lane directly beneath Ben Jonson  House.

Click to read the whole letter

Golden Lane Campus Floodlighting: How many lights?

In February the Golden Lane Campus was given planning approval for the installation of flood lighting.  Given permission for 4 powerful light fittings, it seems the school has actually had 8 installed.

What the plans said

What the plans said to make it clear

What was actually installed ... Not 4 but 8

Antennae atop the Barbican - application withdrawn

The City has sent out a notice of the withdrawal of the application to install transmitter masts on top of the highest point of the conservatory, the theatre fly tower.

Click to read the whole letter

Heating off - back soon

If you're feeling chilly, this is why ...

From the BEO:

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Background Underfloor Heating

This is to inform residents that the Background Underfloor Heating has been repaired, is switched on and is functioning as normal. You should get warmth coming through by tomorrow morning.

Sometime last night it developed a software issue, an engineer was called in and he managed to rectify the issue.

The Background Underfloor Heating will be assessed at the end of April for the annual switch off.

House Group Objects to the Antennae

BJHG Objection to the proposed antennae atop the arts centre from the chair of the house group:
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Although I have already submitted an individual objection, this objection is on behalf of the Ben Jonson House Group, of which I am Chair. We object strongly to the proposal for the following reasons:

1. The listed status of the Barbican buildings and Grade 2* listing of the Barbican estate exist to protect them from damaging changes. Residents are subject to very strict controls about permitted alterations both internally and externally. To use a widely acclaimed icon of mid-century architecture as a support for technical equipment is totally at odds with the listing intentions. It would also set a very dangerous precedent regarding any future proposals.
2. The fact that the masts will project 3.4 metres above the roofline means that they will be visible across the estate from apartments at the same height or higher. They will be detrimental to the outlook of residents.
3. The potential threat to health must not be understated. The lack of conclusive proof that such installations are a health threat should be balanced against the lack of conclusive proof that they are not. In the USA the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommends 457 metre setback for wireless infrastructure near schools. The FCC felt there was a strong case for “prudent avoidance” because the development of wireless technology was outpacing research on the health impacts. This applies particularly to 5G. In this case not only are the Golden Lane Campus and the City of London School for Girls closer than recommended, but there are apartments, occupied day and night, as close as 30 metres away.
4. The proximity of residential buildings is not referred to in the application, but Ben Jonson House and 5 other Barbican blocks of flats are all located within about 100 metres of the installation. This equates to several hundred flats and large numbers of residents.
5. No recognisable public consultation was held prior to submitting this application, in spite of its likely impact.

Weird noises from the tunnel - just a sound test

The arts centre are dreaming up new events which require understanding the acoustics of potential performance sites.  The potential sites are tested with a series of tests involving powerful speaker systems and microphones dotted about the place.

This morning at 09:00 a team was hard at work testing the soundscape at the junction of Beech St and Golden Lane.  You may have heard a series of loud rising/failing tones as you lay in bed this morning.

I spoke to the people running the tests.  They conceded that their works were noisy (that was the whole point after all), but said they had gone out of their way to get permission for their work at this time ... it seems that some nice person in the arts centre told them that 09:00 on a Sunday would be the perfect time to make as much noise as they liked.

NB It is remarkable that resources like this can be brought to bear for an arts project, but when we ask that the soundscape around our homes be measured the City reckons it is not possible. Hmm.

Sound tests at 09:00 on Sunday morning

Angle Grinders in the morning - an update

Further to the very noisy works on the morning of 3rd March here is a response from the City Environmental services:
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... I can advise that the contractor, Centercomms Ltd, did not have our permission to carry out these works. Our Street Enforcement Officer attended and stopped them, following a number of complaints to the service. They will be served with a Community Protection Warning (CPW) and I understand they will also receive a fine or fixed penalty notice from our Highways Dept.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Regards
Environmental Health Officer
Pollution Team
Markets and Consumer Protection
City of London, Walbrook Wharf
78-83 Upper Thames Street
London
EC4R 3TD

Burst Water Main

A burst water main in the Beech St tunnel is flooding the sub-basements below the car parks.  Emergency repair works are expected to continue throughout the night.

Digging into the night