Group   

Workers killed at work (builders)

Categories: Property, Tragedy

Group

The thousands of building workers who have lost their lives at work.

Researching one of these terrible events reminded us that we have found other memorials to people who died in 'accidents' at work. We don't like the word 'accident', since it suggests that nothing could have been done to prevent the death and that is seldom true. We've put together a list of these memorials to deaths at work (many but not all, building workers). To keep it manageable we have excluded: those serving in the emergency services, those killed in terrorist attacks or by war-time bombs, and those killed in rail crashes or on the road.

1853 - ten workmen killed at the Sydenham Crystal Palace construction site.

1877 - six crew members killed during the voyage bringing Cleopatra's Needle to London.

1895 - four men killed at the sewage pumping works, East Ham (Postman's Park).

1899 - one man killed in a boiler explosion at a Battersea sugar refinery (Postman's Park).

1899 - one stewardess drowned (Postman's Park).

1901 - three workmen poisoned by gas at a Stratford distillery ((Postman's Park).

1912 - about 900 crew members lost on the Titanic.

1917 - 73 people were killed in the Silvertown explosion, at a factory producing TNT for the war.

1969 - one demolition worker killed in the Dudgeon's Wharf explosion.

1975 - two engineers killed trying to rescue a third who also died, at Watneys' Mortlake Brewery.

1979 - four men involved in the design of Burgess Park killed in an air crash near Biggin Hill (not certain this was work-related).

1990 - three men killed by the gases in a sewer in Commercial Road.

2000 - three men killed in a construction crane at Canary Wharf.

The death toll at each of the events recorded on plaques in Postman's Park may be higher, but the plaques do not mention deaths of any except those attempting rescue.

In 2006 the statue to the thousands of building workers who have lost their lives at work was erected.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Workers killed at work (builders)

Commemorated ati

Ainsworth & Sharp

We could find nothing about this incident, until we asked Richmond Council's ...

Read More

Burgess, Clark and Whittard

In memory of Martin Burgess, Peter Clark and Michael Whittard, who died on 21...

Read More

Burgess Park designers - 1979 air crash

Geoffrey Mills was the pilot - see his page for more details. Our information...

Read More

Cleopatra's needle - crew members lost

{A list of 6 names, oddly not in alphabetical sequence - see Subjects commemo...

Read More

Crystal Palace workmen's grave

Twelve workmen were killed, but we are unable to find out where the other two...

Read More

Show all 13

Other Subjects

Neville House

Neville House

Sir Hugh Neville owned the Manor of Leadenhall including his mansion Neville House. He set up a small food fair on the grounds in 1309 and this grew into Leadenhall Market. Which suggests it is jus...

Building, Property

1 memorial
Thanet House / Shaftesbury House

Thanet House / Shaftesbury House

Nos. 35-38 Aldersgate Street, built by Inigo Jones. From British History Online: “formerly the London residence of the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet. From them it passed into the family of that clever a...

Building, Property

1 memorial
Bell Moor house, Hampstead

Bell Moor house, Hampstead

On this site four cottages were built in 1810-20: Albion House, Bell-Moor, Hurst Lodge and Harrow Cottage. In 1820 Sir John Jackson, director of the East India Co., died in Bell-moor. In 1875-80 Th...

Building, Property

1 memorial
B. E. Nightingale

B. E. Nightingale

Benjamin Ebenezer Nightingale was born in 1837 in Lambeth, Surrey. He was a son of Benjamin Ebenezer Nightingale (1803-1868) and Margaret Nightingale née Dickinson (1811-1887). On 7 January 1838 he...

Person, Property

2 memorials
Jonathan Carr

Jonathan Carr

Jonathan Thomas Carr. Founder of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, in 1875. He lived in the suburb, first at Tower House, since replaced by St Catherine’s Court flats, which he left in 1904 to...

Person, Property

2 memorials