Location: Stratford, London, England
The Railway Tavern Hotel is a late nineteenth-century public house and hotel located in close proximity to both underground and national rail infrastructure. With future development works proposed above the building and adjacent to live rail lines, McFarland Consulting Ltd were appointed to undertake structural investigations to inform design and risk management.
MCL carried out exploratory investigations to internal floors, windows and structural elements, alongside detailed visual and photographic inspections of the external elevations. The timber roof structure was inspected by a specialist engineer, and key structural elements including load-bearing walls, beams, columns and chimney support arrangements were identified.
The works were undertaken within a constrained and occupied building, with restricted access to roof spaces requiring the development of bespoke safe systems of work. These included the use of temporary aluminium working platforms deployed between ceiling beams and the provision of task-specific lighting to enable safe inspection.
The investigations provided the project team with a clear understanding of the building’s structural form and capacity, enabling informed decisions to be made regarding future development while managing risk to adjacent rail assets and preserving the historic character of the building.