Spy is fortunate enough to have attended many Mansion House dinners over the years. The black-tie banquets are terrific fun: great food, choice wines and current resident and host, Lord Mayor Michael Mainelli, is excellent company. But beneath the gleaming, gold-lined walls of its function rooms, Mansion House hides a secret: it is rapidly crumbling.
A new report published by the City of London Corporation reveals the scale of the problem. Surveyors say “immediate attention” is needed to repair “urgent building fabric issues” with “inoperable” fire escape routes which “present a risk to both life-safety and a potential security vulnerability.” If that wasn’t enough, the 18th century townhouse is blighted by “significant water damage” in the basement and “evidence of water damage” to ceilings; “long cracks to plasterwork” in the lobby and in vaulted ceilings; and flaking paintwork and signs of damp creeping up the walls.
