Work has begun to take down the end wall of the scaffolded building near the top of West St Helen Street.
The scaffold was erected in October 2024 after widening cracks led the district council’s Building Control team to act on safety grounds.
The situation has affected many people. Pedestrian access has been restricted, which has been particularly difficult for disabled and elderly people. It has also closed off rear access and parking for some residents and blocked the rear access to the Grapes pub (currently under refurbishment). Residents of the flats above moved out, and Pappy’s Jamaican restaurant was forced to vacate the building.
No timescale for completion has been announced, although Pappy’s put up a ‘Coming Soon’ banner a few weeks ago.
And this sort of thing is one of the reasons so many buildings were demolished post war, we had all this disintegrating housing stock we couldn’t afford to maintain. Fortunately we have learnt from this ha ha ha ha ha sob