Thoughts On The Tragedy At Grenfell Tower
As a family, C, myself and our three boys used to live in a tower block. Admittedly, Cromwell Tower was an upmarket tower in the Barbican. I wrote about the tower in Cromwell Tower.
Cromwell Tower was designed around a concrete core in a brutalist style in the 1960s, just like Grenfell Tower.
Cromwell Tower had a network of passages that allowed escape to the floors underneath. I suspect that Grenfell Tower had similar passages.
But there were differences.
- Cromwell Tower had a higher standard of interior finish.
- Every flat in Cromwell Tower has a wide airy balcony.
- Cromwell Tower has no gas.
- Cromwell Tower was designed for high net worth tenants, whereas Grenfell Tower was a Council block.
As both blocks were designed around the same time, I suspect that they were designed to the same set of regulations.
So why did Grenfell Tower catch fire?
These are possible reasons.
Gas
I don’t like gas, as one thing I remember from working at ICI in the 1960s, is that how powerful a gas explosion can be.
Naked gas flames also are a major cause of asthma, as they create oxides of nitrogen.
But if we had had gas in Cromwell Tower and there had been a leak, the escape passages would have been an ideal way for the gas to spread through the tower.
For these and other reasons, I believe strongly, that all multiple occupancy housing should not be connected to a gas supply.
I’ve also heard that view from a Chief Fire Officer in Suffolk.
The Design And Execution Of The Upgrade
Was it done to high enough standards?
The Cladding
\Suspicion is falling on the cladding of the building.
Smoking
How friendly was the building to smokers?
Have we really learned the lessons of the past?
The Summerland Disaster
In 1971, over fifty people were killed in a fire on the Isle of Man in the Summerland Disaster. This is Wikipedia’s summary.
The Summerland disaster occurred when a fire spread through the Summerland leisure centre in Douglas on the Isle of Man on the night of 2 August 1973. Between fifty and fifty-three people were killed and eighty seriously injured
I know it wasn’t a tower block, but I think that there are common issues.
Under Background this is said.
Summerland was opened on 25 May 1971. It was a climate-controlled building covering 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) on Douglas’s waterfront, consisting of 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) of floor area at a cost of £2 million. The building’s hull and the interior were designed by two different architects—they did not match their planning to each other and thereby created a venue with significant fire risks that were only to become apparent later.
So did the architects of the upgrade do a proper job? Did they have any co-operation with the original architects.
The same Background section also says this.
Summerland was designed to accommodate up to 10,000 tourists and comprised a dance area, five floors of holiday games, restaurants and public bars. It was a 1960s concrete design incorporating advanced controlled internal climate, built with novel construction techniques using new plastic materials. The street frontage and part of the roof was clad in Oroglas, a transparent acrylic glass sheeting.
Note the use of Oroglas cladding, which is still made today.
At the time of the Summerland disaster, I was working at ICI Plastics, who made a similar acrylic sheet called Perspex. As I look around my kitchen, I see various applications of this or similar plastics.
In several places in one ICI chemical works, Perspex windows were used, as there was the occasional small explosion and you didn’t want to shower people in glass fragments. But they were clearly marked Perspex Window – Fire Hazard.
So the problems of acrylic were clearly known at the time and yet, acrylic sheet was used to clad the building. One ICI Perspex expert told me, that Perspex shouldn’t be used to clad buildings.
So was the cladding itself a fire risk at Grenfell Tower because an inappropriate material was used, just as at Summerland?
Under Fire, this is said.
The fire started around 7:30 p.m. on 2 August 1973, and was caused by three boys who were smoking in a small, disused kiosk adjacent to the centre’s miniature golf course.
So was smoking, one of the causes of the fire, just as it was in the Summerland disaster?
We don’t seem to have learned much from the Summerland disaster.
Conclusion
I’m led back to gas being the cause of the original fire, as there is nothing energetic enough to cause such a fierce fire.
It is also stated in various media articles, that there were problems with the gas.
Chiltern Railways Must Be Chuffed
This article in the Oxford Mail is entitled One Million Passengers Use New Rail Link Between Bicester And Oxford In First Six Months.
Chiltern Railways spokesman, says they are delighted.
The article also discloses that the proportion of visitors to Bicester Village, travelling by train has gone up from three to ten per cent.
I haven’t been to Bicester Village since C died, but it was always a difficult place to park, so if nothing else the economics of Bicester Village, must be improved, if visitors come by train. That must mean the ratio of shops to parking can go up.
There must be a lot of data about rail-connected shopping centres, as the UK has several.
- Eastfield at Stratford.
- Grand Central in Birmingham
- Meadowhall
- Metro Centre at Gateshead
- Oxford Street
- Westfield at Shepherds Bush
It will be interesting to see what happens after the following.
- Oxford Street gets two double-ended Crossrail stations at Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.
- The Trafford Centre is connected to the Manchester Metrolink.
- Merry Hill is connected to the Midland Metro.
I don’t think that the rail and tram companies would be making these investments, if they felt they would be losing money.
There must be a very strong link to the bottom line of Shopping Centres.
Consider.
- Provision of car parking spaces must be expensive.
- Provision of car parking uses up space that could be used for retail outlets or leisure facilities.
- Lots of car parking produces traffic jams.
- Car parking regularly gets full.
- Cars get broken into and damaged.
- Increasing capacity on a rail or tram link is not the Shopping Centre’s capital investment.
But most importantly, does a rail/tram link attract people like me, who can’t or don’t drive.
I also think, that Shopping Centres benefit from passing trade from the rail or tram link.
If I’m passing Eastfield or Westfield in London or Meadowhall in Sheffield and need lunch or a gluten-free sandwich from Marks and Spencer, I will often break my journey and have a quick shop.
In many cases, this is easier on a train or tram, than in a car, as the driver parks the former for you and you’re often immediately in the Shopping Centre.
I’m particularly looking forward to the opening of the Western entrance to Tottenham Court Road station when Crossrail opens next year. This entrance will be next door to the flagship Marks and Spencer store at the Pantheon.
The Anonymous Widower 