Residents of Angela Court on Burdett Road in Mile End, east London, have faced 10 weeks of severe chaos. Sewage leaks have flooded their lift shafts, bringing about dozens of escalator malfunctions. This persistent issue more recently forced Tower Hamlets Council to temporarily rehome six families as residents’ frustrations boil over.
Mayor Lutfur Rahman noted that the community has been “up in arms” over the repeated lift outages, with four such incidents recorded since 2019. The council is deeply aware of the pain these disruptions continue to inflict upon families. In response, the spokesperson specifically apologized for the “inconvenience” local residents dealt with.
The ongoing lift problems are the result of a serious design mistake in the building’s underlying infrastructure. Gulam Hussain, Tower Hamlets Council’s director of neighbourhoods and customer services, explained, “The problems themselves aren’t with the lifts. It’s actually the way that the sewage system in the blocks are run, and they run within the lift shafts.” This self-inflicted design problem makes any temporary repairs problematic and raises questions about a durable solution for the long term.
Earlier this year, over 100 families were displaced for almost two weeks while repairs needed to be made. The council echoed advocates’ calls for major dollars to address the root causes. They admitted that they could not fully fix the design issue.
Tower Hamlets Council purchased Angela Court in 2019. Since then, residents have endured repeated lift failures and a near-daily outrage. The latest tragedy was the last straw, pushing community frustration to new heights and pushing community members to call for much more urgent action from their city leaders.
