Goodge Street closed due to burst water main

Goodge Street is closed to motor traffic in both directions west of Goodge Place due to Thames Water making repairs to a burst water main.

Water started breaking through the surface of part of Goodge Street in Fitzrovia on Friday morning, only six months after the road was closed at the same location due to a previous repair by Thames Water.

On Friday and overnight to Saturday morning water could be seen pouring from the road between the junction of Charlotte Street and Newman Street.

Workers for Thames Water arrived on Friday 1 December and placed a traffic cone in the middle of the road to warn of the growing pothole, but left without doing any further work.

On Saturday lunchtime workers arrived again and dug a hole to locate the leak. They also drew water from a standpipe to reduce the flow from the leak under the road.

Fitzrovia News understands that work on the repairs will continue on Saturday evening and Thames Water will provide another update on progress on Sunday.

On Monday a Thames Water spokesperson said: “From Friday our engineers investigated the leak on Goodge Street and were able to complete the repair on Sunday 3 December.

“Due to the complexity of the leak, it’s took slightly longer to carry out the repair. We worked as quickly and safely as possible to get this sorted and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this caused to local residents.”

However, the hole in the road has (as of Tuesday morning) not been repaired and the road remains “closed”.

Despite signs either side of the works clearly stating the road is closed, drivers on Monday started pushing past the barriers and driving through. This has continued on Tuesday morning and the scene has been chaotic and potentially dangerous.

Fitzrovia News again contacted Thames Water on Monday about this but has not received a response.

A sign at the works site in Goodge Street states that the repairs are due to be completed by 8 December.

In May this year Thames Water closed Goodge Street while it dug a huge hole to make “improvements” at the same location.

Nearby at Howland Street repairs to a water main by Thames Water are also taking place. The road is closed at the junction with Charlotte and Fitzroy Streets. Those works are due to finish by Sunday 3 December states a site notice.

On Monday 1 December the Howland Street works had been completed and the road was open.

Update, 8.55pm Tuesday 5 December: Goodge Street was reopened at around 8pm on Tuesday 5 December after the repairs were completed that afternoon.

Editor’s note: this story was updated a number of times since first published to add information.