PEDESTRIANS had a lucky escape after part of a sculpture fell off a building in Notting Hill Gate.
Lengths of aluminium and carbon fibre toppled from the top of 43-45 Newcombe House and landed on the pavement on Saturday, and have been taken away by engineers for further investigation.
The fallen parts were moving sections of a sculpture entitled The Climber, created by artist Peter Logan and installed in 2000 as part of a project paid for by Notting Hill Gate Improvement Group.
Tim Burke, chairman of the group, said: "We are deeply concerned and shocked about what has happened here. I am treating this as if the worst did happen as it is of paramount importance to find out what went wrong.
“We are desperate to find the cause of the sculpture falling. Whether there was something wrong with the inherent design of the artwork, or whether it was a negligent maintenance issue or caused by something entirely unforeseen will become clear with time."
He added: "This was not some haphazard piece of artwork. It had a safety certificate from a structural engineer and its moving parts had been looked at by a specialist aircraft engineer. As far as I am aware, it has been maintained throughout the years, but until I get a report from the engineer, I can’t speculate as to the cause. "
Notting Hill resident Robin Stanley found the collapsed sculpture on the pavement, and said he believed the failure was the result of metal fatigue. He said: “Thankfully it didn’t fall during the working week as it would have been a different kind of story.”
Mr Logan said: “Enormous safety procedures were followed when it was attached to the building, so something somewhere has gone drastically wrong. When I built it, I had an engineer examine and check the structure so I always felt confident that it was very well engineered.
“I am just quite devastated that this has happened despite going to such lengths to make sure something like this didn’t happen.”
The Chronicle contacted the William Pears Group, which owns the building, but they did not reply.
All moving parts of the sculpture have been removed.
