Paddington Square In 2017, Erith was employed to carry out the controlled demolition of Royal Mail assets in Paddington. The works pave the way for the Paddington Square to be constructed; a 14 storey, glass-clad building sitting upon three-storey podiums, offering over 350,000 sq ft of office, retail and restaurant space. The works entailed demolishing 3 buildings; The Royal Mail Group sorting offices located at 31 London Street (2 structures), and the former Royal Mail post office at 128-142 Praed Street. The buildings were connected via a two-storey enclosed link-bridge in Winsland Mews, at 1st and 2nd-floor levels. All 3 buildings were demolished using a controlled top-down methodology, where excavators were craned onto the roof to carry out the slabs and walls demolition in reverse order down to ground floor slab level. All buildings were encapsulated with a fully independent scaffold for the protection of the public, clad in fire-retardant monarflex. The full scope of works involved: • Asbestos removal • Installation of temporary services and electrics • Soft strip • Hard demolition • Installation of propping • Installation of boundary walls • Protection of substation and rail services • Slab waterproofing to ground basement levels • Weather-proofing all voids leading down to the basement to prevent water ingress Due to the project’s sensitive urban location and proximity of nearby structures, access and egress from the site presented its challenges. These were mitigated by Erith’s creation and implementation of a robust logistics regime which ensured the impact on neighbouring parties was minimal and the safety of all stakeholders was maintained. Dedicated traffic marshals were employed to manage access and egress, controlling traffic and pedestrian movements to ensure site safety. As the project was located in such an exclusive area of London, we considered it of the utmost importance to foster good relations with surrounding businesses and residents. We achieved this by maintaining consistent liaison with all stakeholders, publishing newsletters, ensuring the blue route on Winsland Mews remained open throughout the works and ensuring working hours and breaking times were in line with the voluntary section 61 notice applied for by Erith prior to the commencement of any noisy works. Demolition