Langford Road house collapse: Residents say concerns go back decades as another home is evacuated due to 'emergency action'

The house collapse in the Fratton street on the morning of December 7 led to dozens of nearby residences being temporarily evacuated to nearby St Mary’s Church, while the residents of the collapsed home were taken to hospital.

Last week, Portsmouth City Council released a statement that said the cause is likely due to the ‘poor quality of the bricks originally used to build the below ground level wall’.

Now the council has reinstated a partial road closure and had to evacuate a house, after recent safety checks flagged concerns about a building close to those originally damaged by the disaster.

The residents of number 29 were rehoused on Sunday, according to a representative from the council, who said that the evacuation was a precautionary measure and ‘emergency action’ is now being taken to make the structure safe at number 27.

This will likely involve some demolition work, according to the representative.

Residents along the street told The News said that they have called their insurance providers for advice and discussed holding an informal residents’ meeting.

Pam Griffiths said she had gone over the surveys completed when she purchased her property in the road thirty years ago.

She said: ‘When the collapse happened it did play on my mind, and now that has come back. I did call my insurance company the other day.

‘If something happened to another house near mine I would get more worried. But it’s not worth getting anyone out at the moment.’

Becky Peters, whose mother lives fewer than five doors down from the collapsed house, said she believes most residents have contacted their insurance providers.

She said: ‘Everyone is a bit worried - it all depends on what happens. We would probably go to a residents’ meeting about the situation.’

Now, The News can reveal that another property in the same road suffered a similar fate in the 1990s.

One resident, who lives near the collapsed building, reported being evacuated from her home for more than six months in 1998, after huge cracks began appearing throughout her house within the space of a few months. Photographs show that the foundations of her home had collapsed in a similar way to the other property last month.

The resident, who asked not to be named and has lived in her Langford Road house since 1993, said: ‘We were having breakfast one day and they windowsill collapsed outside.

‘Me and two others had these cracks. We were the worst. We moved out because the house was going to collapse. It was paid for by the insurance. We had to fight for it – it cost them £85,000 to get it right.’

The resident said they feel 'safe’ inside their home and they have not experienced any further problems since the issues more than twenty years ago,

Witnessing the collapse of a family home nearby, the resident said they were ‘angry’ with the situation, which she believes could have been avoided.

She said: ‘I am so angry. People have been left absolutely traumatised.’

Following the recent house collapse, several residents reported that their homes had experienced visible, severe, and ongoing cracking in internal walls over a period of months, according Ian Maguire, assistant director of regeneration at Portsmouth City Council.

He said: ‘Our building control team have been visiting Langford Road regularly since the collapse of number 25 in December to monitor the adjacent properties.

‘Our community wardens have spoken to neighbouring residents and are distributing another letter with contact details to report any further concerns.

‘There are thousands of terraced properties of similar age in the city, and we have not seen issues like this anywhere else. As these are private properties, the relevant insurance companies will be no doubt instructing experts to look at the reason for the collapse and repair options.’

If you have immediate concerns about the safety of a building, please call the council’s building control service on (023) 9283 4722. Outside of working hours, call 01329 824823.

The council advises anyone concerned about their building to contact their building insurance company, while renters should make sure their landlord is fully aware of the situation and takes appropriate action.