‘Iceberg right ahead….’

Now that Christmas is over it’s time to re-set for the new year. Many of us have raced through the month of December with schools plays, pantomimes, Christmas drinks and parties, wrapping up work before the start of the Christmas break and of course shopping for gifts. The nearest city will cater for most shopping needs should you choose to venture out to the High Street in person. Those that live outside London may even have decided to make an event of Christmas shopping and been lured into a day or two seeing what our great capital city has to offer by comparison.

London is a very cosmopolitan city with amazing shops, restaurants, and tourist spots. Some of our finest hotels offering exemplary service to valued guests includes Claridge’s which I was interested in seeing had been undergoing a huge renovation that completed in September 2021. This ambitious project created new penthouse rooms plus an extraordinary 5 storey ‘iceberg’ basement for the new pool and spa facilities. New Civil Engineer magazine has described it as ‘one of the most remarkably intricate, innovative and unique ground engineering projects.’

For anyone who has read in news articles about residential ‘iceberg’ basements failing in spectacular style with houses falling into the newly dug out basements, you will have some understanding of how ambitious an undertaking this engineering feat was especially considering the hotel remained open for the duration of the works. In the TV programme aired on BBC Two this week they showed how the team devised a plan to ensure excavation noise was kept to a minimum by digging out the subterranean basement by hand, with their specialist team overseen by some of the ‘greatest engineers in the world’.

I look forward to the next episode and when I am next in London, I may even pop along to Mayfair to marvel at the hotel. But just from the outside …. unless I win the lottery in the meantime!