Foundations for Daily News Building

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264

The trzlcturat Eggheer

Foundations,Underpinning and Structural

Problems at the Daily News Building

in the

Citv

of

London*

d

By Frederick W. Slatter, M.I.Struct.E., M.Cons.E., M.Inst. W., M.Soc.C.E. France) and

Arthur

Brown,

A.M .I.Mech.E., M.Soc.C.E. France)

Synopsis

The subject argely deals with the constructional ork

below ground level for a heavy-type structure that has

recentlybeenerected n heCity of London.Like so

many buildings in this area, the sites extremely confined

and is hemmed in on two of its flanks by property of a

similar nature.Theext is mainly evotedohe

practical aspects of some of the more interesting founda-

tionandunderpinningproblems thatare peculiar to

buildings in the densely built-up areas. In such projects

working space is very limited and, due to this,ll design

considerations are inseparablefrom theconstructional

aspect.

When planning the rebuildingof premises of this type

much of the foundation work, where it abuts adjacent

property, is often speculative and it is not until excava-

tion and nspection holes are open th at positive proposals

can bemade. With his hought in mind, t will be

appreciated that here must be

a

continual flexibility

in design consideration that will meet the many varying

conditions as they arise. Many of the original designs

for founding the external stanchions ha t were based on

information obtained from old record drawings of the

adjacent premises had to be completely revised. Exca-

vation work proved these atter drawings to be incorrect

and the final decisions were often largely controlled by

practical considerations. The authors haveendeavoured

to concentrate on describing somef the more interesting

foundation units employed in the above premises, also

their construction, and have, at the same time, tried to

show the close relationship between design and practical

considerations.

Introduction

Thebuildingrecentlycompleted replaces an earlier

structure destroyed by enemy action during May, 1941.

Like its predecessor, the new premises are

a

complete

printinghouse, embodyingall he special features

of construction and layout that are vita l to ensure the

uninterrupted flow of newsprint for a group of the

national daily newspapers.

The original structure of the building was typical of

so many of it s day, i.e., par t steel framework and load-

bearing walls with brick vaulted retaining walls

to

the

basement. In he new building there is

a

complete

steel-framed superstructure with olid reinforced concrete

floors and additional deep basements also constructed

in reinforced concrete.

General Description of Premises

Like all property in the City of London, the site on

which the new building is constructed is extremely

confined and he commercialvalue of the ground is

relatively high, with the consequence that the whole of

Paper tobe read before the Institu tion of Structural En gineers at

11 Up per Belgrave Street, London, S.

W.1

on Thursd ay, October

8th 1954 at

6 P.m.

the site had to be fully developed. The site is bounded

on the north and south flanks by existing buildings, on

the east face by a narrow alley and the front elevation,

which faces west, a h t s a ypicalLondon side-street

carrying a regular heavy volume of vehicular traffic.

Fig. shows ageneralplan of the building and a

layout of the foundations, whilst Figs.

z

and 3 show

typical cross-sections from which it will be seen that the

total area occupied is by no means large. The structure

comprises seven floors, including

a

basement and sub-

basement, and he main roof level, excluding pent-

houses, rises to a height of

84

ft. above pavement level.

There are also many intermediate floor levels and all are

served by two main staircases nd three lifts.

Many special rooms are included to accommodate

printing and allied plant, the whole scheme being care-

fully designed to produce the maximum efficiency and

split-second timing that is so vital o he newspaper

industry.

To

meet bye-law conditions of light and air,

it was necessary o setback the building storey by storey

on its north, east and southaces at third floor level and

introducemansard slopes withdormer windows from

this point to roof level.

Site andBoundaries

Toobtain he necessary floor space for the newly-

planned plant and production, the present building is

provided with an additional sub-basement over

part

of

the site which did not appear in the earlier structure.

The floor level of this averages

27

ft. below pavement

level, whilst the general basement level is approximately

16 ft. below pavement level. Referring again to Fig. I

it

will be seen that the north boundary is immediately

flanked by printing premises belonging to the NEWS

OF

THE

WORLD.

This latter building is a relatively modern

structure-completely steel-framed except for its south

party wall,which is free standing, and is adjacent o

the

DAILY

NEWS

building. This wall is formed in

three parts , i.e., the western third being some IOO ft.

high, the centre hird 35 ft. high with a lighting well

over and the eastern third again IOO ft. high. In order

to onstructhe sub-basement, the westernfront)

section of this wall was underpinned to a depth of 8 ft., a

detailed description of which follows later in the text.

Thesouth flank is bounded on itseastern half by

premises belonging to the Associated Newspapers, Ltd.,

having a sub-basement approximately

5

ft. deep and

the remaining half, by existing DAILY

NEWS

property,

with a sub-basement 7 ft. deep. In addition, on the

south side is a public thoroughfare-MagpieAlley-

running partly through the DAILY NEWS property and

partly over Associated Newspapers premises.

Foundations

Generally, the practical aspect

f

these is complex and

the difficulties inconstruction were increased by the



October, 1954

confined nature of the site. The major portion of the

ground on which the various oundationunits were

cast was blue clay and the safe ground ressure adopted

for design was tons per square foot. In the isolated

5

ft. deepsection of the building n the south-west

corner which was extremely confined, the safe ground

pressure at this level was taken at tons per square foot.

Due to the relatively high incidence of loading approxi-

mately 80 per cent. of the available site was loaded to

capacity.

News of the World ” Party Wall

This wall had been partly underpinned on two previous

occasions, initially when the basement n the earlier

DAILY NEWS

building was taken lower than the original

to be deepened at some future date without he new

foundation encroaching inside the NEWS OF THE WORLD

building. (It is pointedout hat t was necessary to

trim previousunderpinningduring hepresent con-

struction.)

This unorthodox method necessitated careful prepara-

tion and the ollowing procedure was adopted.

Each section was excavated in

3

ft. deep units at the

back of which a

6

inches-thick

in

situ reinforced concrete

skin wall was constructed and this concrete membrane

served as a permanent poling board. The shuttering to

this concrete had specially prepared walings, and while

the concrete was still green, these were strutted back to

the excavated ace by timber struts fittedith hydraulic

jacks. On reaching the required predetermined pressure,

Fig

NEWS

O

THE

WORLD building and, subsequently, when

the present NEWS OF

THE

WORLD premises were con-

structed.

In this present structure the sub-basement foundations

areituatedpproximately 8 ft. lower thanhose

existing. As previouslymentioned, theparty wall is

free standing and non-load bearing but the steel frame-

work to the adjacent property is supported on R.S.

J.

spreader beams bearing on the earlier underpinning.

After completion of all demolition, a general illustra-

tion of which is shown in Fig. 3a, the

first

construction

work executed was theunderpinning o hewestern

section of the above wall. In areas emote rom he

main raft foundations, this was carried out in alternate

6 ft. widths.Thisunderpinning was to extendonly

as far as the N E W S OF

THE

WORLD face

of

the party wall

in order to ake it convenient for the adjoiningasement

the timber struts were then tightened up by means of

folding wedges, thereby eleasing the load from the

jacks. As the wedgeswere driven home, the load

sustained by the jackswas gradually released and when

the load was reduced to zero the whole of the pressure

was taken by the struts leaving the jacks free for the

nextperation,Thisrocedurensuredositive

support o heexcavated face beneath heexisting

foundation and at the same time firmly embedded the

new concrete “ poling board ” into he clay, thus

reducing the possibility of any voids remaining between

the concrete and clay faces.

Having formed the first section of permanent shutter-

ing, succeeding approx.

3

ft.-deepsections were con-

structed in the same manner until the required depth,

i.e., 8 ft., was reached. t this stage the underside of

theexisting oundation was thoroughlycleaned off



266

Fig.

Fig.

3



October

954 267

after which he void formedwas filled with QualityfIfA

concrete (L.C.C.), leaving ag-inches spacet the top. This

aperture between the new and existing concrete surfaces

was finally filled by ramming in half dry :

sand and

cement to complete the underpinning operation.

typical detail of this work is shown in Fig.

4

Retaining

Walls

Whilst these operations were being carried out, work

proceeded

o

the excavation for the AshentreeCourt

(east side) and BouverieStreet (west side) retaining

walls.

The digging on the Bouveric Street frontage was to be

some 3 ft. below pavement level and, since the road

over is traversed by very heavily loaded lorries bringing

reels of paper to the various printing houses, great care

was necessary in the construction of this wall. To

foreign matterand hequality

of

its waterresistant

properties proved extremely successful.

Both theaforementioned walls were basically designed

as

cantilevers, and in each case the oe o he wall

included a continuous beam foundation which supported

some of the main stanchions.

Referring to the Ashentree Court retaining wall,

this

differs from the Bouverie Street wall in so far that the

stanchions on this external face are supported directly

on the wall at ground floor evel. This procedure was

adopted so tha t he whole of the basementcouldbe

constructed, thus leaving a free unencumbered area in

which the teel erectors couldultimately work. The

alternative to this method was to found the stanchions

on this face at basement level which would ave involved

erecting the lower lengths of these members prior to the

casting of the wall. In view of the complexity of this

Fig. a Photograph

by

courfesyo D ILY NEWS LTD.

ensure continuous stability to the Bouverie Street-face,

it was decided to construct the northern and southern

corners of this side

of

the basement before excavating

the centre section.

In view of the considerable depth of the sub-basement,

due consideration was given to the problem of ensuring

thathe rea woulde waterproof. Borehole tests

carried out before the commencement of thecontract

didnotdivulge anystandingwater at he proposed

excavated depthsand it was, therefore, assumed that

the water problem would not be very serious. However,

a small but continuous flow of water did appear in the

BouverieStreet retaining wall excavationemanating

from thenorth face.

To

resist this, the specification

for the concrete included

a

waterproofing admixture and

poker type ibrators weresedn all placing.

ll

vertical and horizontal joints were formed with inverted

dovetail sections. On completion of all daywork joints,

laitence was washed from the top of the freshly-placed

concretewith a high pressure waterspray-this was

carried outwithin

14-2

hours after placing. Surfaces

treated in thismannerproduced anextremelyclean

appearance with he aggregate exposed and subsequently

this was coated with a cement grout immediately prior

to the next casting. The joint thus formed was free of

operation also the difficulty of lining the stanchion

shafts, he former method was adopted. To distribute

the stanchion oads, the wall was thickened beyond that

required for apure cantilever unitand pockets were

formed just below ground floor level to receive the

stanchion bases.

In the course of excavation, precast concrete poling

boards were adopted as asupport o heearth face

behind the timber walings and these formed permanent

shuttering to the outside face of the wall. The concrete

poling boards were

3

ft. x

f t

in. thick, and were

providedwith wo Ii-in.diameter holes hrough he

2-in. thickness for the purpose of forcing grout between

the board and he clay face. Unlikeimberpoling

boards whichwould have to bewithdrawnafter con-

creting and the remaining void filled, grout was forced

through the holes, thus enabling all voids between the

concrete and the cut clay face o befilled solid, thus

preventing any local settlement n he road.

The problem of designing thetruttingohe

excavated face to facilitate theplacing of reinforcement

and rrange a practical oncreting rogramme was

carefully considered athe outset.n deciding the

complete arrangementno factor could be settled without

full consideration of all allied problems.Shown

in



Fig.

are

typical details of the procedure adopted on

the Bouverie Street wall. The concretepolingboards

were held back to theclay face in the first instance by

a

timber sub-waling and this in turn was retained by

a

series of timber spacing blocks, spaced conveniently to

allow the reinforcement to be fixed. These blocks were

restrained by the main walings which developed heir

support from the struts bearing on the dumpling. Each

frame of timbererected

as

theexcavation proceeded

was

3

ft. below the preceding frame, the poling board

length was made he same to simplify the support to

this atterunit. Fig.Sa shows thenearly completed

Bouverie Street wall.

At the south-west cornerof this site , problem existed

where two of the s tanchions in theew building

Nos. 38

fromeach unit

so

that it couldbe appedwitheach

succeeding unit. As the openings formed at each opera-

tion were made larger than is normal for conventional

underpinning, temporary steelstruts bearing on concrete

pads were inserted beneath the existing foundation and

these were eventually cast in with the new raftl toe.

Fig. 6 shows

a

general arrangement of the foundation.

This section of the work, as

a

separate unit, required

seven months to complete. Some idea

of

the excavation

for this operation is shown in Fig. ba, and Fig. 6b is an

illustration of the shaft after emoval of the timbering.

Another interesting combined foundation and under-

pinning operation was carried out on the north sidc of

the building, adjacent nd nderneathhe western

section of the NEWS

OF

THE WORLD par ty wall. Behind

and

31

with base loads of 437 tons and4 5 tons respect-

ively) were sited n close proximity o he existing

D A I L Y

NEWS building

on

the western section of the south

flank. A complication in this problemwasbrought

aboutdue o hebasement in theadjacent building

being sited a t a level approximately 3 ft. below the new

buildingsub-basement level. Inaddition,

a

reinforced

concretetaircase block from the xist ing building

projected on to the new site, its area being some 2 ft.

wide 32 ft. long. This appendage was to be preserved

for future access between the new and old buildings

below ground level and had tobe maintained during the

construction of the new building since it also housed

vital switchrooms and ink storage anks. To provide

an adequate foundation for the two stanchions, it was

decided to form a combined base to be constructed a t

low level and partly below the aforementioned staircase

block. Thisparticularfoundation also formed the oe

to theBouverie Street retaining wall

t

the southend.

Themaximumdepth of underpinning for this was

8 ft.deep 6 ft. high and he overall ength 30 ft.

Constructionwas carried out in five units of varying

lengths, he reinforcementbeingarranged toproject

the main taircase at he north-west orner of the

building are si ted two stanchions, Nos

26 and

27

both

of which are positioned in the thickness of the party

wall, for their lower lengths, on the

DAILY

N E W S

side.

With such conditions obtaining it

was

inevitable that

these members would have to be founded on the undei*-

pinning and he base oads to thesestanchions were

96 tons and 29 tons for

Nos. 26

and

27

respectively.

I t was not possible safely to spread thepryssure througl

the underpinning concrete and it was decided to form 'a

combinedoundationwithtanchion No

28

(load

5 8 tons), which was sited 9 ft.

6

in. directly to the

south of the stanchions previously mentioned, approxi-

mately on

a

centre line between the two. Having

decided that a raft was a practical solution to support

the three stanchions, the method of constructing i t was

carefully considered. The most important feature of the

design was the complete continuity of the raft with the

underpinning, and to effect this the following procedure

was adopted.

The size of the raft needed to be 18 t. wide 5

ft

long and the 8 ft . width had to be constructed partly

under he party wall. I t wits considered safe to carry



B M M R l E S TR EE T E TA IN IN G W AL L U U V A T O N

S E C T I O N SHOWINC STRUTTING T

PLAN

OH -A

Fig.

out underpinning in widths up

to

a maximum of 6 ft.

at

one ime, herefore, his raft at itsnorthernend was

made up of three 6 ft. strips.Eachsection of under-

pinning constructedwas cast completewith the necessary

raft reinforcement, a portion of which was left projecting

to be spliced with steel subsequently fixed in the remain-

ing raft section. Instead of the final pinning up

being

executed as described before, the top ide of the concrete

was kept down f t . 5 in. below the existing foundations

and pinned up at he first stage in engineering brickwork

laid withdry oints.The express reason for this was

because the brickwork had to be taken out again

at

a

later stage to eave room for the insertion of a grillage.

Stanchions 26 and

27

were 6 ft. 8 in. apart (cast to

west) and were to be supported on a foundation cast in

three eparatewidths for part of its lengthwith no

lateral connection. To ensure the whole foundation

wouldwork as amonolithic unit, a combined grillage

formed the base to these stanchions, thereby spreading

the load across the foundation. In he emporary blue

brick underpinningmentionedabove, hree 2 ft.-wide

pockets were left forming openings between the under-

side of the existing foundation and thenew underpinning

concrete, these openings extending back to the concrete

skin wall.

After this work was completed, the excavation for the

main section of the raft connected to this underpinning

proceeded. Aswillbeseen in Fig.

I

theconstruction

was furthercomplicated by he presence of a lift pit

adjacent o stanchion

28

Since there was little room

between thisstanchion and he southern edge of the

lift pit, it was not convenient to adopt a bloom base to

distribute he load to he foundation raft. In view of

thiscircumstanceplatedspreader beamswerechosen

as a suitable medium to ransfer the load from the

stanchion to he raft, an arrangement hat suited the

physical conditions and a t the same time evenly distri-

buted the pressure across the

IS

ft.-wide foundation at

5

1

Fig.

a



its southern end. Reference to Fig.

7

will indicate the he pockets left in the engineering brickwork, their outer

construction of this foundation where it forms part of the ends being supported on concrete posts

3

ft.

g in. clear of

underpinning and Fig. 7a shows theemporary nder-he arty wall. The existingoundationwas then

pinning completed with the main raft reinforcement pinned up in I I half drysandand cement on thesteel

ready for concreting. needles, after which all the brickwork was takenut.

After he completion of the main raft construction,This left

a

clear opening underneath he existingfounda-

steel needles attached o R.S.J. posts were inserted nto ion,approximately

18

ft. long and 3 ft. high, being

Fig. 6a Phologruph y courtesy o DAILY NEWS LTD.



October 954

sufficiently large enough to insert the grillage to support

stanchions 26 and.27. Finally this grillage was manczu-

vred into position under the existing foundation and the

Photogvuph

by

couvfesy o DAILY NEWS LTD.

Fig. b

27=

stanchions attached thereto as shown in Fig. 7b. After

levelling and grouting, the whole unit was concrete cased

to within in. of the top and theninned up asdescribed

previously. Theexternal portion of the teel needles

were cut off by oxy-acetylene flame, the remainder of the

needling and R.S.

J.

posts being left cast in solid with the

foundationunit.

A urther oundation problem of

a

different type

presented itself at he eastern section

of

the outh

boundaryadjacent to Magpie Alley. Along this cleva-

Fig. 7a



tion, the outside of the struc turewas to be supported on

the existing basementwall to theAssociated Newspapers’

premises, and at his point, Magpie Alley forms a roof to

the basement of this building. During he years 1923-

1925, when the aforementioned building was erected, a

steel-framed retaining wallwas constructed which

is

approximately 50 ft . high and formed underpinning to

the earlier DAILY NEWS building. In addition to this the

basement to the original

DAILY

NEWS building had been

lowered subsequent to

its

original construction.This

latter work was carried out prior to the construction of

the Associated Newspapers’ premises and the wall and

formed, to support the roadway forming Magpie Alley.

Since this atter thoroughfare s a publichighway, it

had to be continuously maintained. After the opening

had been formed, the op of the existing oncrete

retaining wall was trimmed

off

and

a

concrete bearing

pad wasformed. The new engineering brick wall was

then built for the length

of

the opening to the required

height,with oothing eft to bond in the subsequent

5 ft. widths. Each subsequentunitwas onstructed

as

described unt il he whole length was completed.

Finally, the stanchions were founded on this wall and

transferred their load to it by means of steel base plates,

Fig. 7b

foundations described were further underpinned between

the steel-framed concrete wall and the original founda-

tions.

In he new building fourstanchions,

Nos.

7 12 19

nd

25, with base loads of 50 tons, 166 tons, 227 tons and

259 tons espectively, were to be sitedon his wall.

After general demolition the existing brickwork proved

to be entirely unsatisfactory for supporting these loads

and a new scheme was devised to meet the conditions.

South of this wall and foundation were lockers and

lavatories used by the Associated Newspapers’ staff and

these had to be maintained in use together with many

main services in thesamearea.Theonlyconvenient

andsuitable medium for transferring these stanchion

loads to the steel-framed retaining wall was engineering

brickwork-laid as first quality work-capable of safely

sustaining 25 tons per square foot. The wall adopted

was ft.

73

in. thick and, due to onstruction difficulties,

wasbuilt in 5 ft. lengths.

To

carry out he necessary

operations, the first step was to contruct a temporary

screen in the locker rooms on the south side, hereby

providing free and continuous access to the existing

footings.

Dealing with one section a t

a

time, 5 ft.-wide openings

were cut in the existing wall (footings) and temporary

steel beamswere provided at high level across the opening

themaximum thickness of whichwas in. Fig. 8

shows the nearly completed wall.

Framework

The whole of thesuperstructurewascarriedout in

structural steelwith solid reinforced concrete floors.

Like kindred buildings in the newspaper indust ry, the

mainendeavour in the planning is speed and effi-

ciency ” with the result that there is a large number of

intermediate floorevels and seemingly uncommon

structural features.

To form the main machine room a t basement level a t

the rear of the building

a

clear space was required 70 ft.

long

x

37 ft. 6

in.

wide

x

26 ft. high. The main

structuralunits forming the ceiling to this are wo

double and one single web plate girders, weighing a

maximum of

2 1

tons each. A further girderof 37 ft. 6 in.

span x ft. IO in. deep under the foundry room floor

and over the same area was designed with four access

holes through the web-this girder weighed

27

tons and

is well illustrated in Fig. g. The longest span girder in

the framework is at the first floor level over the vanway.

This member is 53 ft. 6 in. long x ft. deep and is of

plate and angle construction weighing just over 20 tons.

In he completed structure his girderwas cased in

concrete and faced withPortlandstone. In arranging



October,

954

273

a programme for stoneayers for this work,attentionwas

thispointupwards a series

of

cranked rames were

drawn to the anticipated deflection of this girder when

introduced on these three elevations a t each subsequent

fully loaded. The total deflection was calculated to be

floor level up to roof.

1.20 in. and it was considered th at if the stone facing

o meet the clients needs, many accesses were formed

was to be ixedbefore the fullapplication of super- between the new ana existingdjacent buildings,

structure dead oad, hen here would be a likelihood

including

a

bridge a t second floor level on the southace.

of the stone cracking as

the beam deflected. To over-

In constructing the atter ,an opening

12

ft. high x

come this possibility a programme was arranged whereby

the wholeof thesuperstructure, floors and brickwork

was completed before the facing was fixed. This

ensured that the beam realised some

65

per cent. of its

gross loading befbre final cladding operations began and

the risk of damage to the storxwork

was

considerably

Fig. Photographby courtesy

o

D A ILY

NEW S LTD.

Photograph by couvlesy o DAILY

NEWS LTD.)

Fig.

9

lessened.As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, the

structure

is

raked back above cill height a t third-floor

level on the north, south and eastaces to meet statu tory

requirements with regard to light and

air

to buildings.

This arrangement involved nearly all the external stan-

chions being terminated at second floor level and from

ft. wide had to be formed in the external wall of the

existing building. This was a heavy load bearing wall

and

a

complicated form of s trut ting and needling was

designed and constructed

so

that the necessary cutting

away could be effected in theold building. On completion

of this preparatory work a structura l steel box frame

was erected in the opening and the brickwork above and

below pinnedup.After emoval of all struttingand

needling, the erection of the bridge followed, which was

carried out in conventional slab and beam construction.

Conclusion

The whole of the demolition, onstruction of the

foundations, steel frame, reinforced concrete floors and

dormer slopes wascompleted in twoyearsand three

months.The otalamount of structura l steel used in

the superstructure amounted to

700

tons and 190 tons

of mild steel rod reinforcement in he whole of the

reinforced concrete work.

Throughouthe whole contracthere were many

associated people whose contribution to the total cheme

was invaluable andhe uthors would record their

acknowledgements to Mr. T. W. Parsons, A.M.I.Mech.E.,

M.I.Struct.E., M.Soc.C.E.(France), Director and Chief

Mechanical Engineer of the NEWS

CHRONICLE and THE

STAR,

who was primarily responsible for the production

planning and the original conception of the building ;

Ellis, Clarke Gallannaugh,F/F.R.I.B.A., whowere

responsible for the general design of the building and

all services ; Trollope Colls, Ltd., the General Contrac-

tor, who carried out the construction ; Moreland Hayne

and Co., Ltd., Structural Steel Engineers,who fabricated

and erected the structural steelwork, and Mr. Frederick

S.Snow,O.B.E., M.I.C.E., M.I.Mech.E., P.P.I.Struct.E.,

who acted in anverall advisory capacity, nd encouraged

the authors to prepare

this

paper.

Documents

Foundations for Daily News Building