Underground vault strengthening beneath London’s streets

Popular London venue, the Star is a very well established French Bistro during the day and specialist Gin Club at night. All of a sudden the venue discovered that its underground tasting rooms in the brick vaults were cracking and leaking. The evident damage and potential safety risk rendered these essential spaces unusable.

Buildings insurance claim underway

Propping was installed to prevent potential collapse as Goldhawk were brought in by the Insurers to assess the extent of the problem and design a solution.

Specialist vault strengthening

The Star’s arched brick vaults are located beneath Hollen Street roadway and are subject to full Highway loading. Assessment of the arches revealed that in their damaged state they were significantly understrength, and the road would need to be temporarily closed. Using Goldhawk’s own unique MARS system our team designed and installed a strengthening scheme suitable for each individual arch. This enabled the infrastructure team at FM Conway to carefully lift the street surfacing over the arch and apply a waterproof membrane before reinstating the paving and road make up.

Completion and results

The venue successfully returned to full use of the under-street vaults whilst the road above carries the weight of busy London Traffic. The cost-effective MARS solution prevented the need to carry out expensive, disruptive and time consuming reconstruction of their historic basement vaults and cellars.