Recovery

The residents' entrance, with postal pigeon holes to the right

****** EDIT: Please note, these photos were taken by official staff, appropriately attired in safety gear, under supervision and with an exit strategy. The building is UNSAFE and members of the public are NOT allowed inside the safety fences. Members of the public are not allowed in the gardens at all**********************

 Just a short post this week. The trenches for the new electricity supply are largely completed. We’re waiting for the service providers to pass them as OK, then we can start laying on power and water to the part of the garden where the visitors’ hub will be located.

Elsewhere, the gardens are looking good in the sunshine. Amongst all their other work, the two Mr O’s are doing a lovely job of keeping the gardens kempt. For any of our former residents visiting, the gardens will appear as usual, now dressed in their autumnal colours.

The results when Flat 11 burnt through and fell into Flat 4 below

A pair of shoes left behind during the evacuation

The kitchen of Top Rooms, the little attic flat, as it looks today

Nigel supervised a recovery mission this week. One of the flats had been partially destroyed, but whatever possessions that could be salvaged safely were taken to dry storage. A little office desk – the mail desk that had sat in the residents’ corridor– came through the fire relatively unscathed. Before the fire, it had been used to leave parcels and deliveries for collection when residents got home.  I found out it had quite a history of its own, and had belonged to Professor Brown as a young man. It had followed him from house to house during his life, eventually finding a home in the corridor. Amazingly, it is recoverable; it’ll need cleaning down and sanding, the stain reapplied where there is water-marking and a good polish. The thought that this one piece of furniture that the Professor might recognize as his, could be restored and given back to a 93-year-old man who lost everything gave me immense joy.

Heating thermostat got too hot

A plant buried as the roof fell, continues to flower

As you can see from the photos, the pattern of the fire was incredibly intense, but then, there are little pockets (often protected by falling sodden plaster ceilings) that were protected. Several of the internal brick walls fell, the rubble piling up to 5-6 foot-high in what were ground floor corridors, two months ago. It is a strange sensation trying to reconcile how Betley Court is now with our memories of how it was. The fire’s destruction was so thorough, robbing us of markers to get our bearings from. It is taking a lot of getting used to.