Pavement 7: Raised ironworks

Now Stoke Newington Church Street, N16, is completely bereft of its top-surface buses and other large vehicles shake the flat to its core. The shake goes up the spine and shudders picture frames. Before the final layer of tarmac is laid the road workers have to flatten the raised ironworks. Ironworks are the drains and other things that test the suspension of any moving vehicle and there are a lot of them in London.

Some of these ironworks in Church Street are unnecessary and last week the labourers came in to remove them where they were not needed. Being so deep, probably many decades old, and heavy, the pneumatic drills had to be carted around the street in the shovel of one of the yellow JCBs to get them out. Below is one example of a raised ironwork that will remain, and one that has been drilled out, in preparation for its immanent excavation.

The drilling was persistent and required significant force from the workers. The shrill of the machine recalled the worst moments of the pavement slicers back in the early autumn. But eventually the ironwork outside my flat that had been designated for removal was out of its hole. Like a stubborn thorn that has taken a lot of graft to get out the men left the ironwork on public display for quite some time and let their eye linger on it.

But, the reward for residents’ patience is a spanking new road. The transition from construction to finish as we see below. Drivers in the area will like the feel of road under their tyres – like that ‘mmm’ factor that Herbal Essence adverts try to perpetuate – and by witnessing the construction will know of the rubble and concrete that lies beneath. Maybe it’ll be treated better now, given that the way it was constructed is better known.