Demolition work at site to start this summer, with parts of the building to be made ’available for inclusion as features in the memorial’
Parts of the burned out shell of Grenfell Tower could be included as features in a planned memorial, according to a government update on the deconstruction of the building.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued an update on plans to dismantle the west London tower, confirming work will start this summer.
It also said elements from the tower will be made “available for inclusion as features in the memorial, if the community wish”.
Parts of the 24-storey tower including its architectural crown will be sensitively removed, preserved and stored as “agreed with the community as we carefully take the building down”, the update said.
It comes ahead of the announcement of the winner of an international competition to design a memorial for the 72 victims of the blaze which swept through the tower in June 2017.
Five shortlisted teams, consisting of Curl La Tourelle and Head Architecture, Freehaus, George King Architects and Grow to Know, New South and Office Sian, were announced in January this year as part of a competition run by RIBA and the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission.
A winning team will be announced this summer, with a planning application expected to be submitted in late 2026 if a final design is considered sufficiently developed.
In February, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced the building, which has been declared structurally unsafe by engineers, would be taken down to ground level.
The decision was met with anger by some members of the Grenfell community, with one survivor saying removing the building would put the disaster “out of sight and out of mind”.
Some members of the bereaved and survivors community have proposed rebuilding the tower or retaining parts of the building for the memorial.
A report published in 2022 by the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission contained several suggestions from members of the Grenfell community including a proposal to retain the tower as a “vertical garden” with a high level platform and hanging plants on its walls.
The government has set aside a site of just under 3,000sq m for the memorial, which includes the ground on which the tower block stands in North Kensington and adjacent land on either side.
The government update on the demolition, which is expected to take two years, said materials removed from the tower not chosen for the memorial will be taken to a separate site to be “respectfully laid to rest”.
“This will be an appropriate, accessible, sacred place that families will be able to visit, in line with the recommendation made by the independent Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission. We are speaking to faith leaders to advise us on considerations for the preparation of the land, laying the materials to rest and long-term care,” the document said.
The government said it is also planning to use illumination to create a “visible presence on the skyline” during the deconstruction and will share images of options with the Grenfell community.
The work will be carried out by demolition contractor Deconstruct UK, which has been working on the site since 2017. The government has previously said it had awarded Deconstruct the £12.25m contract without competition because “any change in contractor would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs”.
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