- Title: UK: CONTROLLED IMPLOSION OF 22 STOREY TOWER BLOCK
- Date: 26th July 1998
- Summary: HACKNEY, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 26, 1998) (RTV) 1. SLV PAN/ SLV TILT UP TOWER BLOCK DUE TO BE DEMOLISHED WITH HUGE BANNER ACROSS TOP FLOORS. 0.17 2. SCU NATALIE PENNEY, CHAIR OF ESTATES COMMITTEE, SAYING "OBVIOUSLY PEOPLE ARE SAD, I LIVE IN A TOWER BLOCK, I'VE HAD WITH GARDEN, BUT THE TOWER BLOCK IS YOUR HOME, AND YOU HAVE A HAPPY HOME, BUT MY CHILD WOULD BE BETTER OFF IN HOUSE HAPPY MEMORIES, BUT IT DOESNT CHANGE FACT THAT THEY HAVE PROBLEMS AND ARE UNSUITABLE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THEM." (ENGLISH) 0.50 3. HAS TOWER BLOCKS 0.56 4. SLV BROKEN WINDOWS IN BLOCK 1.00 5. SCU /SLV EXPLOSIVES ATTACHED TO SUPPORT PILLARS AT BOTTOM OF FARNELL POINT/ RUBBLE CLEARED FROM BLOCK AT BOTTOM 1.09 6. SLV BUILDING CONTRACTORS ON TOP OF ADJACENT TOWER (AUDIO SIREN) 1.14 7. HAS TOWER BLOCK BEING IMPLODED AFTER COUNTDOWN /DUST RISING 1.44 8. SLV SMOKE BILLOWING ACROSS FACADE OF REMAINING TOWER BLOCK / SLV BUILDING CONTRACTORS (2 SHOTS) 1.55 9. HAS RUBBLE, SMOKE RISING. 2.01 10. SLV IMPLOSION, TEN SECOND COUNTDOWN, EXPLOSIONS AND IMPLOSION, CROWD CLAPPING. 2.40 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 10th August 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HACKNEY, LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City:
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVAEN6YP31JM6GHG60UC5UN9NZ4F
- Story Text: A 22 storey east London tower block has been demolished in a controlled implosion.
Farnell Point on the Nightingale Estate in Hackney was blown up at midday to cheers from residents and onlookers.
Over 50 new housing association homes will be built on the site.
The 22-storey tower block on the Nightingale Estate in Hackney, east London was demolished on Saturday (July 26) to make way for 50 new low rise homes.
Hackney council has now demolished 12 tower blocks as part of a programme to revitalise the borough's public housing, and transforming the worst high rise estates with traditional homes and gardens.
Tower block resident and chair of the Estate development committee Natalie Penney said although many people had happy memories of living in tower blocks, the high rise housing had many problems and were unsuitable for children.
Penney helped push the plunger blow up the block, alongside British soap opera actor Sylvester Williams and 11-year old resident Joanna Jones.
Thousands of specatators and former residents watched as the high rise council block crumbled to dust in a great billow of smoke.
The controlled explosion used 1300 detonating charges and 35 kilos of explosive.
Local authorities across Britain enthusiasticly built hundreds of high rise dwellings as a solution to the post war housing problems of the 1960's.
The towering quick build concrete blocks, once thought of as a dream homes, soon became a nightmare for residents.
Rapid deterioration, vandalism, graffiti and social problems all discredited the architects' visions of high rise living, and within twenty years of the first towers being built they were being demolished.
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