Harrow Crown Court closure due to crumbling concrete in the roof extended to 2026
Harrow Crown Court closure due to crumbling concrete in the roof extended to 2026
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One of London’s crown courts is set to be closed for most of 2025 amid “complex” work to remove dangerous RAAC concrete from the roof. Early last year, news leaked that the closure would be extended until April 2025 because the RAAC was more widespread than first thought.
![[Court staff kept in dark over Raac concrete safety risk for three years]](https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2020/07/17/17/blackpool-magistrates-court-170720.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
And on Friday, HMCTS included in its weekly newsletter that the courthouse is now not set to re-open at all until “the end of 2025”, and not expected to be fully operational until early 2026. This means the closure will have lasted for two-and-a-half years by the time the courthouse is fully reopened.
“Harrow Crown Court has been closed since August 2023 when Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) was identified at the site”, the message set out. “Since then, we have worked with staff, the judiciary and stakeholders to make sure work from the court has continued to be heard at other London sites.
“We are working to remove all RAAC material from the site, while also replacing the roof structure. “The necessary works have proven to be more complex and taken longer to complete than first anticipated. “The safety of staff, judicial colleagues and court users is paramount and the works now underway will provide a permanent solution to the risk of RAAC failure.
“We will continue to work with our appointed contractor to accelerate the required works as much as possible. “We now anticipate that Harrow will be ready to resume hearings in a phased approach from the end of 2025, with the whole building fully operational in January 2026.”.
