A woman is in hospital after a flat in the middle of a three-storey block exploded in East London this morning violently blowing the walls out of the property.
Dramatic pictures from the scene show the entire exterior wall of the middle floor flat blow out on both sides of the building with windows, brickwork, and a Christmas tree among the debris sat in the gardens below.
Around 15 firefighters and at least three fire engines rushed to the scene at around 2.30am on Well Street in Hackney where they found the woman still in the flat suffering from minor burns and shock.
A woman is in hospital being treated for minor burns and shock (Image: David Nathan/UKNIP)
She was helped out of the flat by firefighters and treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital. Two other residents were also evacuated due to the damage caused to the block.
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "Three fire engines and around 15 firefighters were called to a collapsed building on Well Street in Hackney at 2.32am this morning.
"Firefighters attended a three storey block of flats where an explosion, suspected to have been caused by a boiler, had caused damage to the front and rear of a flat on the first floor.
A Christmas Tree was amongst the rubble (Image: David Nathan/UKNIP)
"One woman was rescued by firefighters from the property suffering from burns and shock, she was treated at the scene by London Ambulance Service crews and taken to hospital. Two other residents were evacuated from the building.
A 796 sqft flat in Upper Norwood has been sold. The home, situated at Crown Point, Beulah Hill in the SE19 postcode area, was registered as sold on 28 September 2023 for a sale price of £217,500. The sale price represents a price per sqft of £273.
The building has an E-rated energy efficiency.
Properties that have recently been sold nearby:
On 29 June 2023, a 592 sqft apartment in Queen Mary Road (number 121) was sold for £250,000. That's £422 per sqft.
On 19 January 2023, a 693 sqft flat (39 Queen Mary Road) was sold for £335,000. That's £483 per sqft. The flat has two bedrooms and one bathroom.
216 Beulah Hill - sold on 4 May 2023 for £150,000. It's a 570 sqft apartment. That works out at £263 per sqft.
About the area:
Upper Norwood is the centermost part of the Victorian suburb of Norwood and is located west of Crystal Palace. It is one of the highest areas in London, situated near the London clay ridge (Beulah Hill), and offers views of Central London, Central Croydon, and the North Downs.
Most of the property dates to the 19th and 20th centuries, with ‘imposing mansions’, often with ‘ostentatious ornamentation’. It has a number of schools and churches and counts composer Edward Elgar and novelist Émile Zola among its notable former residents.
Nearly six in 10 households either have a mortgage or own their own home outright. Around a quarter of households live in a semi-detached house, but a third are in a flat or a tenement, the most common property type.
This article was crafted with the help of an AI engine, which speeds up MyLondon's editorial research and applies it to article templates created by journalists in our newsrooms. A MyLondon editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors or bugs to mylondonnewsdesk@reachplc.com.
A Black teaching assistant from North London claims he was ‘racially profiled’ after being sacked from a school for ‘smelling of cannabis’ - despite not smoking. Eli Belmar, 28, from Islington, is considering legal action as he feels he was 'unfairly dismissed' by bosses at Bridge Academy in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
He insists he does not smoke or vape due to having double pneumonia as a youngster and says the smell had in fact come from one of his students. He said he'd been employed through an agency at the school for just over a week when the accusations arose.
And he claims he was not given the chance to fully defend himself or properly question the rumours before he was ordered not to return. Eli, who was previously a youth worker and has also taught in prisons, said he’d been rocked by the sacking which had left him psychologically scarred.
Eli Belmar says he does not smoke or vape due to having double pneumonia as a youngster (Image: Eli Belmar / SWNS)
The trust which runs the school denied Eli’s ethnicity had anything to do with him being told not to return. Eli said: “I would say it's racial profiling, I would say it’s unconscious bias and I would say it’s unfair dismissal as well.
“It had a heavy effect on me. I had to leave Milton Keynes for a whole week. I had to go and live with my parents just to have some time away. It was an irrational statement and very degrading because they don’t know me from anywhere, I’d only been in the school for a week and a half.
“The teachers haven’t even had a conversation with me and they’re having that kind of judgement on me. Psychologically, this will definitely affect me. It’s very worrying.”
'Felt as though other teachers were suspicious of him'
Eli said he had moved to Milton Keynes for work in August this year. And he then got a role at Bridge Academy, in Coffee Hall, Milton Keynes, a secondary alternative provision school in November. Eli said he'd got on really well with the students and made close ties with several of the pupils in just his first week at the school.
But he also felt the teachers were suspicious of him and didn’t approve of the way he was interacting with the children. Eli said: “I really liked it when it came to the students.
"The conversations I was having were very good because they had a lot of questions for me – being from London, a big city. Within lunch times and break times, some of the students would come up to me and have conversations. But with the teachers, I did sense a bit of animosity and a bit of jealousy because I was getting so close to the students within a short period of time.”
Eli said allegations about him 'smelling of cannabis' emerged after a student had come into the school under the influence of the drug. They had been excluded from a set of mock exams but were later allowed to rejoin the class where he was working as an assistant.
And when a teacher arrived to begin the lesson, they made comments suggesting he was responsible for the pungent smell.
Eli Belmar moved to Milton Keynes from Islington (Image: Eli Belmar / SWNS)
He said: “One teacher who came in, she said, ‘Can you smell that’ to one of her colleagues, and then they both looked at me with a side-eye. I didn’t say anything at the time, but then on my lunch break, I received a call from my agency, and they said there’s been a complaint saying I had a smell of cannabis.
“I said, ‘Has there been a preconception of me because I don’t smoke?’" Eli said he later confronted the teacher, who told him his job was safe. But the following day, he was told he shouldn’t return to the school.
He added: “They said the teacher said even though it’s ‘fine to use it personally,’ you don’t have to come back anymore because it’s now a ‘safeguarding matter’." Eli was left confused and disappointed by the sacking and said there was no way he had used the drug due to his previous health complications. He said: “When I was younger I had double pneumonia, so I’m conscious of my health, and I go to the gym.”
'Concerns raised by a member of staff'
The Stephenson MK Trust, which runs Bridge Academy, denied that Eli’s 'ethnicity' had anything to do with him being told not to return to the school. Their spokesperson said: “An agency member of staff was engaged at Bridge who was employed by the agency and not by the Stephenson (MK) Trust. The agreement with the agency was ended due to concerns raised about the member of staff that were not in line with Trust expectations and policies.
“No part of the decision made was related to the agency member's ethnicity. The Trust is committed to diversity and inclusion in all its employment practices. We expect very high standards from all our employees and want to give the very best support to our young people.
“We have professional expectations of all members of staff, and we are diverse and reflective of the community we teach. Should a member of staff fall below these expectations the Trust would follow our policies, statutory obligations and best practices to ensure that the appropriate actions and next steps are taken.”
A dad who shattered his arm after a 'botched' safety measure catapulted him from his bicycle is suing Croydon Council. Richard Lander was cycling down busy Brighton Road in the evening rush hour when he pulled out of the cycle lane to overtake a bus which had pulled into a stop at around 4:45pm on November 3.
In the late autumn darkness, the dad-of-two says he did not see a black 'base' on road which divides bikes and traffic, and was catapulted over the handlebars, hitting the ground so hard he broke his wrist. Six weeks later, after doctors stuck a metal plate in his arm, the 63-year-old IT project manager says he is still in constant pain and does not know when can get back to riding.
Mr Lander has since complained to the council about the road safety measures and has instructed Osbornes Law to take legal action in a bid to highlight the issue and get the council to make changes.
The offending safety measure which Richard Lander is taking legal action over (Image: Supplied)
“When you have an impact like that, it knocks you silly and I was in incredible pain. I’m just thankful for the passers-by who stopped to help me up out of the road, without whom it could have been a lot worse," Mr Lander said.
"I was covered in bruises and badly injured my coccyx, but it was my wrist that bore the brunt. It’s my dominant left hand so it’s affected my ability to do just about everything, from holding a cup of tea to dressing myself. I can’t work, I can’t drive and I think this is the longest in 60 years that I’ve gone without cycling.
"It’s also the first accident I’ve had, which I believe shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and so now I just want to make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Richard says the bases were originally put in with clearly visible wands before a decision was made to remove most of them. Although the bases and their reflective markings were left behind, he says the latter are little more than stickers which could easily be damaged by cars. He claims there were no such stickers on the night in question or the lights on his bike would have picked them out.
Surgeons put metal plates to fix the bones but Richard is still in constant pain (Image: Supplied)
He added: “I was wearing a helmet, as I always do, a hi-vis coat and had lights on the front of my bike but they didn’t pick anything up. If they’re constantly being driven over by heavy vehicles, it stands to reason that these stickers aren’t going to last very long.
“The council could just keep replacing them, of course, but that is only a temporary solution. My hope is that this focuses the council’s attention on finding a more permanent and reliable way to ensure public safety.”
Sam Collard, head of cycling accident claims at Osbornes Law and part of the team representing Richard, added: “Whilst not life-threatening, Richard’s injuries are such that he may never regain full movement in his hand and, at best, faces a long and painful recovery.
“On a busy road at rush hour, however, it is incredibly fortunate that he was not more seriously hurt, and this should serve as a wake-up call for Croydon council to urgently review its so-called safety measures before the same or worse happens to someone else.”
A spokesperson for Croydon Council said they were unable to comment during active legal proceedings.
The UK's largest evening and night-time economy may be in for ‘a prosperous and harmonious future’, depending on the success of a new strategy shaping its activities after-dark. The need to involve the 'hard to reach' and the marginalised however has been raised by several Westminster councillors, as the local authority works on plans it hopes will improve the nightlife across the city.
Westminster City Council is in the process of formulating its first night-time strategy, entitled Westminster After Dark. Currently at the engagement phase of proceedings, with current actions including an online consultation sourcing feedback from residents, workers and other local groups, it is intended to help diversify and develop Westminster’s night-time economy.
During a recent Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, Westminster City Council members heard from speakers including Libby Harris, Night Time Economy Manager at the City of Sydney Council, who advised on some of the learnings from the authority’s experience rolling out its own plans from 2013.
Sydney’s ‘Open City’ approach is seen as a benchmark in how to run and implement a night-time strategy, with results so-far including increasing turnover from $15 billion to $23.3bn, and jobs from 80,000 to 116,405. Key learnings, Ms Harris told committee members, include the need to communicate ‘at every stage’, and to look at it as a way of working out what residents, visitors, workers and businesses want from the city at night, rather than through the lens of trying to solve a problem, such as reducing alcohol-related violence.
Amy Lamé, London’s Night Czar appointed by the Mayor of London, praised the steps Westminster has taken so far, as she emphasised the need for more planning that considers how Londoners engage with the city after dark. “Let’s face it; London is not, and probably never has been, a nine-to-five city,” she said. “All parts of London’s economy are active around the clock, and a huge number of Londoners are also active around the clock. 1.3 million Londoners regularly work at night. Two-thirds of Londoners are regularly out and about at night.”
Westminster is home to some of London's most famous night-time hubs, such as Soho (Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
‘A significant opportunity’
In a report produced by officers ahead of the meeting, it was noted the City of Westminster is the UK’s largest evening and night-time economy, employing roughly 80,000 people. Officers wrote: “In formulating our plan, our objective is to pioneer an approach that manages this burgeoning growth while nurturing a vibrant, well-regulated, and secure evening and night-time environment. Balancing economic vitality with regulatory oversight and safety measures remains at the forefront of our future evening and night-time plan.”
While Westminster After Dark is still in its early days, the scope of the engagement and development of the strategy goes beyond typical activities associated with nightlife, such as drinking premises, but also options such as retail and sports facilities, as well as what transportation considerations may be required.
During the meeting, Michael Kill, from the Night Time Industry Association (NTIA), said: “The Westminster After Dark strategy represents a significant opportunity to navigate the challenges faced by businesses while preserving an essence of vibrant evening and night-time economy. By approaching this strategy with a keen understanding of economic, infrastructure and confidence challenges, and by prioritising collaboration, approach and innovation, we can ensure a prosperous and harmonious future for Westminster’s famous night-time economy.”
Mr Kill also told councillors it is important that the first point of contact between different stakeholders is not one of conflict. “I think the important point to recognise here is open, consistent communication amongst all stakeholders is vital, and we need to build some sort of trust and confidence framework between policing, local authorities and the industry to break down those barriers as quick and effective as possible, so we can actually start working together truly as a true partnership rather than the rhetoric around partnership with some barriers which represent a real challenge for the industry to open up truly with some of the enforcement officers and people who work on that side.”
The need for the council to engage with a diversity of groups, including residents, businesses and visitors, is seen as especially vital for the success of the strategy. Ms Lamé said it is ‘incumbent’ on the local authority to work a range of opinions and perspectives into the scheme. “You are the custodians of the reputation and the economic thriving of our nation, and that has to be taken into consideration as well.”
Chair of the committee, Cllr Angela Piddock, specifically referenced the regular use of the term ‘the hard to reach’ in discussions relating to engagement, adding: “Well, we have to make sure they aren’t the hard to each, because they are going to be as affected by what we do here as everybody else.”
A number of recommendations, including involving marginalised voices and hearing from a wide pool of stakeholders, were noted during the session. According to the Westminster After Dark webpage, the research phase is due to end this month, with the final plan to be published in May next year.
An East London council is desperately trying to balance the books as it braces for a £23 million budget gap for the next financial year (2024/25). Barking and Dagenham Council says the £23.3 million budget deficit is down to high inflation, increased interest rates and more demand or a change in needs for existing service users.
Council officers said 2023/24 budgets have already been under 'considerable pressure' and said if the council didn't draw on its reserves for this year, it could have found itself in £26.7 million debt. However using its reserves for 2023/24 could have consequences for the next year, council officers have warned. The council has already projected an overspend of £11.6 million for 2023/24 and if this continues it will also need to be funded from reserves.
In a cabinet report that will be discussed at a meeting next week (December 19), council officers said: "Using reserves in this way is only a temporary measure as reserves are a one-off source of funding. Without identifying plans to address this shortfall in 2023/24, this has added additional pressures onto 2024/25. Reserve draw-downs have also supported the council’s finances last financial year with the result that the council’s earmarked reserves have reduced significantly."
They added that the council isn't planning its financial strategy further than three years ahead due to 'significant level of uncertainty post 2024/25' as the country gears up for General Election which must take place by January 2025. They went on to say: "Looking at the wider context, Barking and Dagenham is likely to be facing further inflationary pressures, expectations of rising demand for services and/or changes in complexity of need, particularly for social and housing provision."
The council has been instructed to follow a list of financial measures that could be instrumental for having a balanced budget in the future. Measures include developing a 'robust reserves strategy' and an action plan and said the council should continue scrutinising its job vacancies and agency costs.
The council has not yet revealed what ways it will be making savings and if cuts will be made to services, but plans are currently being worked on and will be presented to the overview and scrutiny committee on January 24 next year. Barking and Dagenham's cabinet members will discuss the budget strategies for 2024/25 and 2026/27 at a meeting next Tuesday.
This beats out Sainsbury's and Tesco, who are selling it for £10 at base rate. It's also cheaper than B&M's £7.99 and eBay's £8.23. This is actually a good deal across the board, as it's more expensive to get the same amount of standard Dairy Milk bars too (you'd need 7.73 of the 110g bar = £10.4355).
There's not much to say about a Cadbury Dairy Milk: it's an absolute classic, and this time it's in big. This is reflected in the absolutely ridiculously high scores on Amazon, where it has reached a 4.8 from 25,295 ratings.
One person said: "These were Christmas presents, I ordered 3 bars, they arrived well packaged, great value for money, by the size of the chocolate bars may take them until next Christmas to finish them, delivered on time stated, well impressed with the items." Another said: "It's a massive bar of chocolate, what's not to love. It tastes amazing it was all in once peace so no visual issues and and none of it was melted."
To see all the best Deals, Sales and Bargains in London, check out our Facebook group.
Get the best deals, sales and bargains sent straight to your phone
You can now join MyLondon's new WhatsApp Community to get the best deals, sales, bargains and much more.
Through WhatsApp, we'll send the latest exciting new products and bargains straight to your phone, both across London and online.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the MyLondon team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice.
However, some people warned it was delivered broken. The seller is Cadbury themselves and delivery handled by Amazon so for any complaints make sure you bring it up. You have statutory 30 day return rights in the UK. One person said: "Good product but the box was damaged and the bar is snapped. Bought this for a Christmas present and I’ve had to bin the outer box which is disappointing as it made it look more like a gift."
The huge 1kg box of Kinder treats include Kinder Bueno is the cheapest you'll get (Image: Amazon)
If Kinder is more your jam, a huge 1kg box of Kinder Happy Moments is currently on sale on Amazon. B&M sell a £3.99 box for 162grams worth of chocolate. This works out to about £2.50 per 100g. Meanwhile, the Amazon box is £18.86 for 1kg, which is £1.82 per 100g. Also, to get the equivalent amount from B&M, you'd need to get 6.17 boxes from them, which works out to £24.62. However, since you can't get 0.17 of a box, you'd have to round up to 7 and this ends up being £27.93. Either way, it's way cheaper buying from Amazon.
