Margaret Davis feels like a prisoner in her own home

A NONAGENARIAN who relies on a wheelchair to leave her flat says she has been left trapped in her home after the only lift in her council block broke down.

Margaret Davis, who is 92 years-old, usually enjoys getting out of her flat in the Wrotham Road “Passivhaus” block – described as award winning when it opened in 2018 – everyday in her wheelchair.

She regularly goes for a morning coffee at the McDonald’s in Camden Town and does her shopping at the Sainsbury’s in Camden Road.

Two weeks ago she said she was unable to attend a birthday celebration for two of her grandchildren because she could not leave her home.

The lift in the Wrotham Road block has been out of action since March 16 after water entered the shaft from the roof and caused damage.

Concerned tenants have been told repairs could take up to 28 days.

Ms Davis said: “I love the mornings. I like to say hello to people when I have my coffee. I like to meet new people.

“It’s very boring being locked in my flat and you don’t know when the lift is going to be fixed, it could be months.”

Ms Davis said she is now the only tenant living in the new block after her previous council flat – where she had lived for 55 years – was demolished in nearby Agar Grove.

In 2023, the New Journal visited Ms Davis after she had been moved out of her former flat in the neighbouring block due to severe damp and black mould.

Glynis Davis, her daughter-in-law, said she had been calling the council almost daily since the lift broke down and that the council had offered temporary accommodation for her mother-in-law but that it was “out of the area.”

She added: “Another tenant in the block is also wheelchair-bound, he has carers and also can’t get out of the house, and another lady underneath mum is on her own and can’t get out of her flat without the lift.

“No one has knocked on the door to ask if tenants are okay. No housing officers have been seen onsite. No leaflets through the door telling residents what is going on.

“They told us they ‘need a part’ why is that such a common phrase among lifts being out of action and what does it even mean?”

The recently built estate in Wrotham Road

The nearly 93-year-old said she liked living in Camden but her daughter-in-law added: “The accommodation and the problems she has had over the past couple of years, the council have let her down.”

Ms Davis came to Camden from Cork in 1953.

She worked in Lyons tea shop in Golders Green, in the kitchens at Chalcot School and as a cleaner at the police stations in Kentish Town and Albany Street.

She raised a family, and had five children – four still alive – and has 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

George Grimshaw, who is in a wheelchair, has not left his flat since the lift has broken down.

He said: “I have not seen outside these four walls in over three weeks. The problem is when I’ve tried to call the council they try to fob me off and don’t seem to understand the serious­ness of the situation.”

Mr Grimshaw, who has lived in the Wrotham Road block of flats for seven years, is an Arsenal fan and regularly goes to the Emirates with his father to watch the football.

Since the lift broke down he has been unable to attend three games.

“It should have been fixed and I don’t really know where to go from here,” he said.

“I feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall.”

The London Fire Brigade were called out to the block on March 16 in response to calls of a leak from the roof.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Our focus is on getting the lift fixed as soon as possible – we realise how important the lift is to residents at Wrotham Road. The lift initially stopped working after a roof leak caused damage to the lift’s control system. Although we have repaired the leak and got the replacement parts we need, we’ve now found additional damage within the lift shaft caused by the water, which we are repairing.

“We would like to apologise to residents and thank them for their patience while we make these repairs. Our neighbourhood housing team continues to give support to vulnerable and elderly tenants.”