Mezzanine floor collapses in pub, East London.

[adam2]

As reported by various news media. Early reports state 13 persons injured, 3 are in a serious condition.  Others were trapped on the still standing part of the mezzanine and rescued by the fire brigade.

The immediate cause of the collapse is not yet clear. Published pictures of the scene suggest that the failed structure was relatively new. Timbers that presumably supported the floor are shown apparently intact, but at an about 45 degree angle with one end resting on the main floor below the mezzanine. This might suggest failure of whatever supported one end of these timbers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60364090

 

[kerry davies]

Bit early to speculate but it used to be Stour Space, cafe and gallery while the bar is now called Two More Years because that's all they have on the lease. Stour seems to have gone under "due to lockdown" though they don't seem to have been too bothered about accounts for a few years. It looks like someone bridged between two girders/ I beams with 4x2 timber then laid chipboard flooring panels as a floor. It looks like the 4x2's just snapped. Wonder if they had one of their advertised DJs up there?

[adamharman]

The 4th photo is quite interesting, the one showing the steel column with the beams fixed to each side.

Left hand beam has a welded end plate which is bolted to the column and is also supported on a fairly heavy piece of angle which looks to be bolted to the column. This is how it should be done

Right hand beam is fixed to the column by ?????

Timbers look like 6x2 in that photo, which wouldn't be enough for the whole (5m ish?) span, but probably fine for half of it.

Looking at the first photo, there's a steel column which changes paint colour where another beam may have been attached to support the mezzanine.

I'd say there was a steel beam supporting the centre of the floor, with the timbers set into each side of it, and that steel dropped rather than the timber snapping. Sizes of timber and steel appear to be about right, but whoever did the job had no experience with structural steelwork and tacked it together with a small DIY welder.....

 

[Junior8]

Alteration without recalculation??

 

[Dave m]

There don’t seem to be any cross braces in the structural timbers?
I suspect that the whole floor was prone to a lot of bounce each evening