Hundreds evacuated from three east London towers after a crack is found in a transfer slab
Roughly 211 households had to leave St Vincent Court, Sovereign Tower and Centurion Tower in Canning Town, east London, early on Oct. 23 when engineers discovered a crack in the transfer slab under blocks finished less than a decade ago.
Managing agent Prime Property Management ordered the evacuation, citing "an imminent risk to life" tied to the slab, London Construction Magazine reported. Prime said structural engineers raised concerns while preparing building safety cases, and an inspection on Oct. 21 confirmed them. The London Fire Brigade, called late on Oct. 22, helped Newham Council officers move residents to a rest center.
Transfer slabs are heavy concrete floors that pick up the columns or walls of the upper storeys and shift that load onto a different grid of supports underneath. Construction Management reported that the crack is in a slab under two of the towers. The blocks belong to the Royal Gateway, or Caxton Works, scheme developed by a joint venture of Galliard Homes and Cathedral Group. Construction Enquirer and London Construction Magazine date completion to 2017; Construction Management says the scheme was finished in 2018, with the flats built by Galliard Construction.
This is the second east London evacuation over transfer slabs in under a year. In December 2025 the landlord Notting Hill Genesis relocated roughly 300 people from three Halo buildings in Stratford, and the Building Safety Regulator warned owners about punching shear in such slabs, London Construction Magazine reported, citing Inside Housing for the Halo case.
No return date has been set. Prime has given no word on who pays for the investigation, repairs or temporary housing, and Newham Council says none of its own tenants live there. The Building Safety Act 2022 stretched the window for Defective Premises Act claims to 30 years for buildings completed before June 28, 2022.
Why it matters: The same kind of slab carries flats over podiums, garages and retail floors in many U.S. towers. Here the defect turned up more than nine years after move-in, during a mandatory safety review. Keep punching-shear checks and rebar inspection records where a future owner can find them.
Sources
- Canning Town Towers Evacuated over Cracked Transfer SlabLondon Construction Magazine, Oct 26
- Three towers evacuated over “serious structural problems”Construction Enquirer, Oct 26
- Residents evacuated from three tower blocks due to structural concernsConstruction Management, Oct 27