Residents of Thanet Tower and Prince Court in Canning Town were told to evacuate on Friday following engineering concerns about the transfer slab beneath the buildings. The evacuation expanded an earlier three-block evacuation, with residents of all five affected blocks told not to re-enter until further notice.
The two further blocks are in Newham, east London. Their evacuation forms part of the same structural-safety issue affecting the development, rather than a separate incident. The immediate instruction for residents is to remain outside the affected buildings while the restriction on re-entry continues.
The local authority said dangerous-structure notices had been served and that it was operating a rest centre. Those measures sit alongside the instruction covering all five blocks. The notices and evacuation concern the safety of the buildings; no collapse was reported.
The concern centres on the transfer slab beneath Thanet Tower and Prince Court. The risk has been described as high following an engineering assessment. That description concerns the assessed structural risk, not a reported collapse, and should not be read as confirmation that a collapse has occurred.
For residents of the two newly evacuated blocks, Friday’s instruction brought them within the wider restrictions already affecting the development. The earlier evacuation involved three blocks; the addition of Thanet Tower and Prince Court brought the total covered by the no-re-entry instruction to five.
The restriction is expressed as applying “until further notice”. It is therefore not an instruction limited to the initial evacuation itself. Residents have been told that the affected blocks must not be re-entered while that direction remains in place.
The rest centre is part of the local authority’s response to the evacuation. Its operation is confirmed alongside the dangerous-structure notices and the continuing restriction on access. The evacuation and rest-centre arrangements reflect the housing disruption associated with residents being told to leave the affected buildings.
The engineering concern and the authority’s instructions are related but distinct elements of the situation. The concern identifies the transfer slab beneath the buildings as the focus of the safety assessment. The notices establish the dangerous-structure status, while the evacuation and no-re-entry instructions set out what residents have been told to do.
The high-risk description must also be kept separate from any conclusion about responsibility. The available facts establish that engineers assessed a structural-safety concern and that residents were instructed to evacuate. They do not establish who was responsible for the condition that prompted that assessment.
Similarly, the expansion to five blocks describes the scope of the evacuation restriction, not five reported collapses. No collapse was reported. Thanet Tower and Prince Court are the two additional buildings named in the latest evacuation, with the earlier three-block evacuation providing the context for the wider instruction.
The central practical distinction is between leaving a building and being permitted to return. In this case, the authority’s direction covers both: residents of the further two blocks were told to evacuate on Friday, and all five affected blocks must not be re-entered until further notice.
The situation remains one of an engineering-assessed safety risk and an active restriction on access. For the affected residents, the confirmed position is that the five-block no-re-entry instruction continues, dangerous-structure notices have been served, and a rest centre is being operated by the local authority.
