20 Farringdon Street The scheme at Farringdon was situated in the centre of the City of London, in close proximity to City Thameslink Railway station and directly adjacent to the main road from Blackfriars Bridge. The building itself was a steel-framed structure with Holorib floor and in-situ concrete floor slabs and comprised a former public house and offices fronting Farringdon Street. Due to the building’s location and immediate surroundings, the site had a number of constraints, including: • Pedestrian traffic on Farringdon Street • The proximity of adjoining properties and residents • The position of an existing live substation • Maintaining vehicle access into Old Fleet Lane for neighbouring deliveries • The sensitivity of the neighbours to dust, noise and vibration • Party wall with 25 Farringdon Street Chief amongst these challenges was the site bordering the Fleet Street and Newgate Street Conservation areas respectively. As a result, we ensured our practice was targeted to the requirements of these conservation areas to enable a compliant and sensitive project. Works on-site involved asbestos removal from the basement areas, the soft strip of the building in its entirety and structural demolition of the building. A top-down demolition technique was adopted for the vast majority of the demolition process, with monarflex fully encapsulating the building and scaffolding. This diligent approach ensured the deconstruction remained within the fabric of the building at all times, safeguarding surrounding premises from ongoing external works throughout the entirety of the contract. 5-tonne mini machines were hoisted to the highest level to remove the roof, enabling the 360 excavators to work on a level platform. The 360 excavators were fitted with pulverisers, hydraulic pneumatic breakers and munchers to sequentially demolish the structure floor by floor. Demolition arisings were sent down to the ground floor using the existing lift shaft to be processed further on the ground floor and hauled off-site. With careful liaison with neighbouring businesses, Erith was able to schedule transportation of materials to and from the site via the building’s existing loading bay, with minimal impact to third parties. The party wall required a more sensitive approach to the demolition due to the wall being shared with an operational office. In turn, this required Erith to adopt a more pragmatic approach, utilising hand demolition techniques to mitigate any impact caused to the wall and abutting structure. With the assistance of our in-house engineers, Swanton Consulting, temporary propping was installed in the form of raking props, used to support the party wall during the demolition process. The contract was fulfilled without any lost time accidents or incidents. Location: Farringdon Street, London EC4