Update: two people have since been taken to hospital after being trapped under the collapsed scaffolding — read the latest here.
A busy south London road has been closed in both directions after scaffolding reportedly fell from a building, leaving drivers facing queues and bus passengers facing disruption.
The A23 Streatham High Road is shut between Shrubbery Road and Gleneldon Road, with traffic building up in the surrounding streets as a result. According to traffic monitoring service INRIX, the closure is in place because of an unsafe building, and diversions are operating around the affected stretch.
Motorists have been urged to follow the signed diversion route, allow extra time for their journeys and avoid the area where possible. Drivers are also being advised to check for the latest travel updates before setting out.
Posts on social media have linked the fallen scaffolding to Storm Austen, which brought winds of close to 50mph to the capital over the weekend. That link has not been confirmed as the cause of this closure, and it is not yet clear what issues have been identified with the building itself.
Bus routes disrupted
A number of London bus routes have been disrupted while the road remains shut, including the 45, 50, 57, 109 and 133. Those routes run through Streatham and connect it with neighbouring parts of south London, so passengers travelling through the area should expect delays and possible diversions.
The closure affects a key section of the A23, one of south London’s main arterial routes. Streatham High Road carries heavy traffic through the town centre, with shops, bus stops and side streets feeding directly onto it, which means a full closure in both directions quickly sends traffic onto surrounding residential roads.
What happens with an unsafe building
When a building is declared unsafe, the road around it is typically kept closed until the structure has been assessed and made safe. That process generally involves building control officers and structural engineers examining the building and any scaffolding attached to it, and deciding what work is needed before the street can reopen safely.
Until that assessment is complete, closures of this kind can last for hours rather than minutes, and reopening times are usually only given once engineers are satisfied there is no further risk to people passing below. In this case, no reopening time has been given, and it remains unclear how long the closure will stay in place.
Councils have powers to close roads where a building poses a danger to the public, and scaffolding is routinely inspected after periods of high wind, when gusts can loosen boards, sheeting and fixings. Those checks are a standard part of keeping streets safe after a storm, and they are one reason why a road can stay shut even after the weather itself has passed. None of that, however, confirms what happened to this particular building, and the specific fault here has not been identified.
For bus passengers, the disruption is likely to be felt beyond the closed stretch itself. When a main road shuts, buses are diverted onto parallel streets that are not designed for the same volume of traffic, which can add significant time to journeys and cause bunching, where several buses arrive together after a gap. Passengers using the 45, 50, 57, 109 and 133 should check live bus information before travelling and consider whether an alternative route, including nearby rail services from Streatham stations, would be quicker.
The incident is the latest in a series of building-related road closures across London in recent days. In Kilburn, a stretch of the High Road was closed after a building fire before reopening to traffic, while in Southall a road closure linked to an emergency incident later appeared to ease. Each case has underlined how quickly a single building problem can shut a busy route and divert traffic across a whole neighbourhood.
For now, the advice for anyone travelling through Streatham is straightforward: avoid the High Road between Shrubbery Road and Gleneldon Road, follow the signed diversions, and check live travel updates before travelling. This story will be updated if a reopening time or further detail about the building is confirmed.
