I’ve written about the Grenfell Tower disaster here before, and described it as a form of ‘slow violence’. I’m returning to it now because the British Government has just announced plans for the demolition of the Tower in language that is unexpected, and unexpected for good reasons.
There have also been several pieces about Grenfell on my newsletter, Just Two Things. By way of a reminder: 72 people died in a fire in the Tower, in west London, on the 14 June 2017 after cladding on the building caught fire.
The findings of full scale inquiry that followed were grim. It found that contractors had used materials they knew to be dangerous (and mentioned this on email), that there had been cost-cutting, and that Kensington and Chelsea’s housing organisation had responded to residents’ concerns about fire risk with hostility. In one piece on Just Two Things, I described it as a tale of “greed, deceit and carelessness”. A massive police investigation continues.
‘Callous indifference’
As Peter Apps wrote in a long piece at the end of the Inquiry,
In the private sector there was a callous indifference to anything – morality, honesty, life safety – that was not related to the bottom line of the business. In the public sector there was an aversion to anything that disrupted the status quo, a weary cynicism and an insular desire to protect the reputation of organisations by refusing to admit or actively concealing flaws.
There is some controversy about the decision to demolish the Tower. Some survivors and bereaved relatives want it to remain in place until the criminal processes are completed, or for longer, and you can see why they might want the scene of the alleged crime to remain as a visible memory. The decision to proceed with the demolition seems to have followed advice from engineers that after eight years the structure is unsafe.
All the same, the announcement of the demolition plan used language that is quite surprising for a government department, perhaps because Angela Rayner was at the time the relevant Secretary of State (and, given her own unprivileged upbringing, perhaps has more empathy for those killed through the neglect of social housing). She has since had to resign from office because of an unrelated issue. [1]
‘A sacred site’
As Apollo magazine reported (paywalled), the official announcement of the demolition referred to Grenfell as a “sacred” site, alluding to the fact that there are still bodies inside it:
‘It is clear from conversations it remains a sacred site,’ Rayner wrote in the announcement. ‘It is also clear that there is not a consensus about what should happen to it.’
Will Wiles notes in his article,
It is strange to hear the word sacred used here, without adornment or qualification, and the plainness of it is quite salutary… But the process, overseen by the company Deconstruct UK and outlined in a document released at the end of July, is not informed by practicality alone but by a higher level of care and tact.
Laid to rest
The process of demolition involves greater care for the building than Kensington and Chelsea or its grasping and callous contractors ever managed when people lived there.
Deconstruct UK has been working at the Grenfell Tower site since 2017. The demolition process will take two years, and the building will be wrapped during the time. The memorial banner will continue atop of the building and will be illuminated at night. Parts will be retained for possible use in a memorial. Debris will be laid to rest at an “appropriate, accessible and sacred” site so families can pay their respects. Faith leaders will advise on the overall process.
Apollo is a magazine about art, and the piece references a series of paintings by Leon Kossoff that captured the demolition of the YMCA building in London in 1970 as an explanation of what this careful demolition process was trying to avoid.
‘The surgeon or priest’
As Wiles notes in his piece:
These churning, unsettling pictures capture the combination of captivation and disturbance caused by this rupture, as well as the dirt and disorder of the process. Modern demolition contractors go about their work in a much more thoughtful, safe manner than their counterparts 50 years ago, but there is an unavoidable element of violence and psychic interruption in seeing a building – particularly a prominent building – taken apart.
In contrast, he writes, the Grenfell process seems to propose “going about its work with the discretion of the surgeon or priest.”
The five page Government statement about the demolition of the Tower is couched in careful language that honours the dead and their memory, in my view. They are being treated with far more respect after death than they received in life. The language, and the process, says Wiles,
gives the proposed deconstruction a ritual quality in keeping with the sacred nature of the site, together with a ritual avoidance of contamination and any unwanted, prying eyes… The tower itself is a grave and a scene of avoidable, criminal tragedy but, properly enacted, this sedulous process of removal can be invested with a deep sense of importance and human meaning.
‘Palaces of gold’
The police have said little about the progress of the criminal investigation since April 2024, when they estimated that the first charges would be unlikely before the end of 2026. In their partial defence, it is a sprawling crime, involving the investigation of 19 companies and 58 individuals as suspects, and thousands of pieces of evidence.
All the same, this gives me the opportunity to remind readers that the musician Martin Simpson has committed to singing Leon Rosselson’s song ‘Palaces of Gold’, written after the Aberfan tragedy in Wales, at every concert that he plays, until the Grenfell survivors and families get justice. As he said the last time I saw him perform, “I wish I didn’t have to sing this.”
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[1] It is possible to think that she should not have been so careless about calculating the tax due when buying a house while almost admiring the qualities that she brought to her Department.
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A shorter version of this article is also published on my Just Two Things Newsletter.
the next wave