A dangerous structure notice will be issued after a roof collapsed on a residential site in east London which was developed by Ballymore but is now managed by Galliard Homes.
On Thursday evening (June 15), a roof collapsed at Crossharbour Montessori Nursery on the Isle of Dogs. London Fire Brigade attended just before 9pm and confirmed there were no injuries or people involved, saying “a third floor roof collapsed onto a second floor nursery”.
The nursery is located in a high-rise residential tower built within the first phase of the Baltimore Wharf project, developed by Ballymore. Tower Hamlets Council said the rest of the building was “unaffected”.
Construction news asked Ballymore if he directed the construction of the building or hired a main contractor. The developer has not responded.
However, a source said the building the nursery occupied was sold in 2010 and the wider estate was sold in 2013. Ballymore is understood to have had no further involvement in the operation or Baltimore dock maintenance ever since.
The freehold of the entire site is now owned by Baltimore Wharf SLP, a Jersey registered company. Since 2013, Galliard has developed parts of the site, including the 42-story Baltimore Tower.
Julian Harper-Brown, managing director of Galliard’s in-house property management services company, Property Management Matters, confirmed that Galliard was aware of the situation at the nursery.
“We were not the developers of this site,” Harper-Brown said. “However, Property Management Matters manages the scheme and has launched a thorough investigation.
“The safety and welfare of children is clearly of critical importance, and we have been working closely with the authorities since last night to address the reported incidents. We can assure all stakeholders that we are committed to implementing the necessary measures to ensure a safe environment”.
Harp Singh, the director of the nursery, said Construction news that the kindergarten had been a tenant of the building since 2010, when it was newly built. He said “the owner and authorities are investigating to see what went wrong.”
Peter Golds, a Tower Hamlets councilor from a nearby ward, said he had asked the council to “investigate the situation with building control about what happened to the roof of the [nursery]”, which “leaves the building”.
He also said the council should investigate whether “there are any structural problems in the block of flats”.
A spokesman for Tower Hamlets Council said: “We are shocked at the collapse of the roof and are lucky it happened outside of nursery hours. Our team visited the site last night [Thursday] inspect the privately owned building.
“We have found the roof extension to be unsafe and will be issuing a dangerous structure notice for that section of the building only. The rest of the building is unaffected. We have also referred this incident to the Executive of Health and Safety (HSE).
“We hope the building owner will have a structural engineer investigate the cause of the collapse and advise us of their findings and plan remedial works.
“The council’s early childhood education team will work with the nursery to support parents and carers who need to find alternative childcare, while the nursery is closed.”
HSE has been contacted for comment.
