It was a delightfully dry and bright, crisp and chilly weekend in London... except for a sudden bit of flooding along Edgware Road on Sunday morning. Not from the heavens opening in a repeat of the 2007 deluges but from what has been reported as a mechanical digger failure at the crucial junction of Sussex Gardens and Edgware Road not far from Marble Arch.
This is the junction where traffic from Paddington Station comes roaring through from the west to join a particularly busy stretch of shops and bus routes. You can imagine the chaos and stress in the area when a 24 inch water main was broken and a half-mile stretch of the four-lane road suddenly disappeared under several inches of the wet stuff. Thames Water are blaming third party activity for the flooding as the water main was not faulty or on the verge of bursting - all fingers are pointing to the mechanical digger.
Up to 15 businesses were affected and residents had very weak showers all day, though some were unluckier and had no water at all during the leak. The affected areas included Paddington and Kensington so if the inches of moving water gushing around the traffic lights outside Somerfield weren't enough to convince you, the geographical reach of this accident should give you a sense of how serious things are.
Water supplies are returning to normal but the section of Edgware Road between the tube station and the start of Sussex Gardens will be closed to traffic for a few more days. This will affect bus routes 36, 436, 6, 98, 16, 16a, 7, 15 and 23. We told you a lot of buses go along that road. Walking or wading might be the best option for the first half of this week, so even though it's looking crisp and dry in the sky, you may still need to pack those wellies and waterproofs anyway. Keep an eye on TfL and travel updates for news on the area.
Image courtesy of Roll the Dice from the Londonist Flickr pool.
