One of central London’s most prestigious and expensive neighbourhoods has been blighted by months of successive roadworks that have been described as ‘the worst in history’.
Belgravia, with its regency townhouses and previously quiet garden squares, has long attracted film stars, tycoons and statesmen while offering some of the UK’s most exclusive shopping.
But recently its calm has been shattered by an epidemic of road works that have made the grating sound of jack-hammer drills and the frustrated car horns a daily occurrence.
Roads and pavements have been dug up for various purposes: gas works, water works, street improvements and health and safety upgrades.
From the walls of Buckingham Palace to the high end boutiques of Sloane Square with Chelsea, utility firms have been digging up successive streets for months – leaving shops, residents and drivers tearing their hair out.
Essential gas works at Sloane Square combined with ‘decorative street improvements’ caused chaos earlier this month, with shop workers fuming and taxi drivers experiencing gridlock.
Equally essential water works, health and safety improvements and decorative street improvements – wider pavements, have further brought traffic to a standstill and stopped shoppers in their tracks.
‘It’s been terrible,’ Hamid Ostadi, a salesman at upmarket hunting outfitters Dubarry told . ‘No one told us that these road works were going to happen.
‘The road has been totally closed so the delivery riders are now flying past on the pavement frightening pedestrians.
‘It’s no longer a pleasant experience to come to Sloane Square.’
His colleague Daniella Hamson, 21, added: ‘Footfall past the shop is down dramatically and we’ve taken a 40 per cent hit on sales.’
Staff at the designer clothes shop next door, Really Wild, are trying to put on a brave face, but quietly one shop worker admits the road works have been disastrous.
‘It’s absolutely ghastly,’ she revealed. ‘There’s so much noise we can’t keep the door open.
‘No one knows when it’s going to end. It’s maddening.’
A short walk away, orange clad engineers from Thames Water are finishing up early from putting in new water mains in Belgrave Place and Eaton Gardens.
The works – scheduled to last until the end of April – take up one lane of the each of the wide boulevards of this consulate enclave.
Climbing out of deep holes in London’s clay earth the workmen are putting away their noisy jackhammers for another day.
Veteran black cab driver James Willoughby told that the situation was the worst he had ever known in his driving career.
Sloane Square and Sebbing Street – Cadent Gas works
Pond Street – decorative street improvement works [completed]
Belgrave Place – Thames Water works
Eaton Square – Thames Water works
Buckingham Palace Road – Cadent Gas Works
Buckingham Palace Road pavements – Cadent Gas Works
Elizabeth Street – Cadent Gas Works [completed]
Lupus Street – Thames Water works [completed]
Piccadilly Underpass – health and safety improvement works
He told us: ‘These roadworks have brought Belgravia to a standstill.
‘At one point they closed two routes out of Sloane Square – one to “improve” the pavement and the other for gas works – it’s madness.
‘The Piccadilly Underpass has been closed due to health and safety and that alone has meant it literally takes twice as long to get anywhere.
‘Belgravia is meant to be the richest part of London, but these roadworks have brought it to a recurring standstill. It’s caused gridlock.’
And he blamed Mayor Sadiq Khan’s failure to have a strategic plan to coordinate which streets can be dug up and when for the problem, saying: ‘It is badly coordinated roadworks that cause the current traffic issues.
‘Utility companies and local councils have tried measures such as night-time works, temporary traffic signals, and traffic management plans, but these have not improved the situation and have often made it worse.
‘Residents and business owners complain about poor coordination and unclear project timelines, calling for better planning and communication.’
Further down the road, the single lane traffic is building up outside the Rising Sun pub on Buckingham Palace Road.
Drivers are queuing while pedestrians are negotiating the open manhole covers – both thanks to ‘essential’ Cadent Gas works.
Inside the pub staff barely acknowledge the bad-tempered hooting of the car drivers outside.
Barman Louis Gaujolle said: ‘This is nothing compared to the disruption in Lupus Street recently.
‘Then the whole area was blocked off for months because of a burst waterpipe.’
Many of the pristine white-brick townhouses nearby fly the national flag of the country whose citizens they represent.
But in due diplomatic style some residents refuse to voice their anger in public.
Asked about the deafening noise, one well-dressed diplomat said calmly: ‘I don’t really hear the building works. I’m inside most of the time.’
Last night council officials insisted that utility road works were ‘essential’
A spokeswoman for Kensington and Chelsea Council said: ‘We coordinate [utility] works wherever possible to minimise disruption.’
‘Works on Sedding Street [by Sloane Square] are part of essential gas works being undertaken by Cadent [Gas company].’
Westminster Council, which covers most of Belgravia, have also been contacted for comment as have the Mayor’s office and TFL.