Waltham Forest Town Hall
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Client
Countryside Properties Ltd
Site
Waltham Forest Town Hall, Waltham Forest, London
Duration
1 year 11 months
Services Used
Demolition
Fellowship Square, a planned new neighbourhood and cultural centre in the heart of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, is located on the Town Hall site and forms a key part of the Council’s plans to ensure economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. The vision for the development was to open up the site to become more welcoming to the public by providing new accessible pedestrian and cycle routes to promote seamless movement through the neighbourhood, whilst enhancing the legibility from new access points.
The proposal for the scheme provides 433 new high-quality, mixed-tenure homes for local people 50% of which is affordable housing. It also creates new commercial and community spaces including a crèche and a cycle hub and new modern, fit for purpose civic building, consolidating existing Council offices from across the borough.
Countryside Properties were appointed for Phase 2 of the Project, building 450 housing units on the site, following on from ISG at Phase 1 who delivered the remodelling and refurbishment of the Grade II listed 1930’s town hall building.
Following a lengthy, multi-stage procurement and tendering process, GDL were selected by Countryside Partnerships Ltd to undertake the major demolition and enabling works at the Waltham Forest Town Hall site, including the adjacent Waltham Forest College and Magistrates Court.
The demolition project was broken down into several phases and comprised of multiple buildings, including the magistrates court; Laurel House; Chestnuts Hall and Sycamore House. In addition to this there were various landscaping requirements and the requirement to protect heritage elements. These works were the first stage in the wider refurbishment and regeneration scheme for the area, which ultimately will deliver a new Civic Centre Office Building, remodelled parkland and 5 new residential blocks.
Our scope, acting as Principal Contractor, included: applying for necessary licenses and permissions; asbestos surveying and subsequent removal; service disconnections and diversions; demolition of redundant buildings; scaffolding and hoarding as required for the works including design, installation and maintenance of a crash deck to protect internal sub-station; removal of redundant services; removal of slabs and foundations; crushing of demolition arisings and stockpiling of processed materiel for use in the further development.
Due to the age and historical importance of the Town Hall site, there were a number of sensitive heritage elements throughout, around and adjacent to the various buildings, which required due consideration to ensure they were not damaged during the demolition works. GDL worked with Countryside and appointed archaeologists and heritage specialists to ensure adequate measures were in place to protect these throughout the works.
Sycamore House, earmarked for demolition in the early phases of the Project, contained a substation and plant room which had to be protected initially, and then removed once UKPN had diverted services and removed their plant and equipment. GDL worked with partner company P&G Scaffolding to design and install the protective crash deck. The main demolition of the Sycamore House building was completed without incident, and UKPN were able to undertake their works, after which we subsequently demolished the now redundant plant room and left the site clean, clear and flat ready to be returned to the Client.
Due to the location of the site, there were several adjacent buildings and shared transit routes that were to remain open and accessible throughout the demolition works. GDL worked with both Countryside and the Council, to determine and design site boundaries, logistics plans, exclusion zones and demolition methodologies to ensure that the phased demolition works were undertaken with minimal disturbance and disruption to surrounding building users and the general public. Extensive mitigation measures were implemented to reduce generation of noise, dust and vibration, as well as minimise the impacts these had on those affected by the works.
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