The London Picture Archive contains some great historic photos of the West End and City. It includes these shots of Middleton Place from the 1960s and 1970s. Note the “Chelsea” graffiti on Number 7 in the second last picture! Click on the photos to see them in more detail…
| 1968, 7 to 11 Middleton Buildings | 1968, 1 to 5 Middleton Buildings |
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| 1968, 3 to 5 Middleton Buildings | 1976, 1 to 5 Middleton Buildings |
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| 1976, 6 & 7 Middleton Buildings | 1976, Middleton Bldgs north entry |
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This page has been prepared for:
– Anuja Jayawickrema, Environmental Health Officer, Westminster
– Westminster Noise Team
– Suez Support Team
UPDATE: it appears that Suez have lost their contract with the University. They have been replaced by Bowater. Hopefully Bowater will prove to be more considerate than their predecessors.
Despite two previous promises from Suez that they will ensure their noisy rubbish collections happen after 7am, once again they have gone back on their word and residents are suffering interupted sleep:
This morning the Suez rubbish collection woke the entire neighbourhood at a ridiculously early 5.38am. (Video with timestamp below.)
| Friday 24 Nov 2017, 6.30am | Thursday 30 Nov 2017, 5.38am |
As a condition for the renovation work on 36 to 40 Langham Street, Westminster Council required the production of a Historic Building Recording Report. This report features a section on Middleton Place.
The author suggests that the original houses in Middleton Place, built in 1759 in the tail end of the reign of King George II, may have been rebuilt prior to new leases being issued in 1856:
The full report (split into three parts) can be found here.
This page has been prepared for:
– Ms Anuja Jayawickrema, Environmental Health Officer, City Of Westminster
– Westminster Noise Team
– Councillors Glenys Roberts, Paul Church & Jonathan Glanz
The problem:
Every weekday morning between 6am and 6.45am local residents are being woken by the deafening noise of the Suez rubbish trucks collecting from the University of Westminster.
Background:
This is not a new issue. Back in July of this year, the residents believed that this problem had been solved thanks to the involvement of Ms Anuja Jayawickrema (Environmental Health Officer, City Of Westminster) – story here. Both the University and Suez had acknowledged the problem and the negative impact it was having on neighbours. Suez reviewed their schedule so that collections happened after 7am.
Unfortunately the early morning collections have started again. This time the problem is worse because there are usually two separate collections: for example, this morning Monday 9th October at 6.09am and again at 6.26am (see videos below).
Footnote: Westminster Council have recently rescheduled their own rubbish collections to happen between 8am and 10am – story here. This has made a tremendous improvement to the lives of local residents. We are at a loss as to why Suez and the University of Westminster are unwilling or unable to make the same adjustment.
Monday 9th October 2017:
| 6.09am | 6.26am |
Friday 6th October 2017:
| 6.43am | |
Thursday 5th October 2017:
| 6.28am | |
Wednesday 4th October 2017:
| 6.30am | |
Tuesday 3rd October 2017:
| 6.46am | |
Monday 2nd October 2017:
| 6.37am | |
From Monday 4th September, new recycling and rubbish collection times come into enforcement in Riding House Street.
Recycling & Rubbish:
These times are a great improvement, previously we could only recycle on a Thursday, and there was no weekend collection.
If you have to dispose of rubbish outside these hours, use the bins located on Riding House Street between Wells Street and Bourlet Close.
[Please do not join the illegal fly-tippers at the junction of Langham Street and Gosfield Street. The Council is planning strict enforcement and fines for the anti-social people who do it.]
For anyone who missed the leaflet, BT have announced that their high speed broadband service, called BT Infinity, is available in Middleton Place.
A quick check at their advertised URL: bt.com/upgrade-now shows prices range from £34.99 to £56.49, depending on which package options you select.
Virgin, Sky and other providers are still not offering high speed internet but it can only be a matter of time. Keep an eye on USwitch for the latest offers.
Early morning, Middleton Place, July 2017
We receive a double visit from Mr.Fox…
This page has been prepared for Ms Anuja Jayawickrema (Environmental Health Officer, City Of Westminster).
Video footage of the Suez rubbish collection trucks:
Tuesday 4 July 2017 at 6:16am:
Wednesday 5 July 2017 at 6:19am:
Thursday 6 July 2017 at 5:58am:
Resident’s Disturbance Log:
Here follows a list of recent dates and times when residents logged that they were woken by the University of Westminster rubbish collections:
Mon 12th June: 6.40am
Tue 13th June: 6.43am
Wed 14th June: 6.40am
Thu 15th June: 6.30am
On Thursday 15th June, we received an email response from the Estates Services Manager of the University of Westminster stating “I have forwarded the issues to our waste contractor, SUEZ. They are being asked to review their drivers’ schedule“.
Consequently, despite the daily disturbance continuing, we stopped keeping our log. We re-started our log on Monday 26th June because we had not noticed any improvement:
Mon 26th June: 6.20am
Tue 27th June: 6.06am
Wed 28th June: 6.20am
Thu 29th June: 6.12am
Fri 30th June: 6.24am
Mon 3rd July: 6:24am
Tue 4th July: 6:16am
Wed 5th July: 6:19am
Thu 6th July: 5:58am
As you can see, since we made our approach to the University to ask if they could re-schedule the collections, the collections have become even earlier. We are a loss as to understand why the University would react in this inappropriate and unneighbourly way.
The 1911 Census section of our website has been updated to include larger images and official transcripts. Now you can see who was living here 105 years ago. The huge ink spill on one of the records for 9 Middleton Buildings is particularly amusing.
Through a combination of late night and early morning business activity, residents can no longer get a good night’s sleep.
It’s nine months since we first highlighted this problem (back in September 2016) and the situation is getting worse. Let’s use the last 24 hours to demonstrate.
Wednesday 5 July 2017, coming up for midnight…
Once again, the late night abuse came from the Yorkshire Grey pub where noisy drinkers were on the pavement until well after 11:30pm (Westminster Noise report: 17/21076/ENC45) as the following video shows:
Thursday 6th July 2017 at 5:58am (ie: approx 6 hours later)…
If you fell asleep as soon as the pub went quiet then you might have been lucky enough to get nearly 6 hours sleep before being rudely awakened by the University of Westminster’s private waste contractors:
Once again we ask: is this the new normal for the residents of Fitzrovia? Can it be acceptable for businesses to prevent us from getting a good night’s sleep?