It’s a mercy nobody was injured when a section of the City Walls fell down.
But a photo has emerged showing archaeologists working in harm’s way just the day before the collapse.
The picture was taken by a shopper on Wednesday afternoon from the footbridge linking the Grosvenor Shopping Centre to the walls.
It was only one day later when the collapse occurred on Thursday night causing tons of stone and rubble to crash down on the very spot where the archaeologists had been working.
An investigation is under way.
It’s not known at this stage whether the work being carried out by the archaeologists, commissioned to work on the scheme, is in any way linked to the incident.
CFA Archaeology Ltd does not wish to comment.
Developer MJW Group are converting former offices in Newgate Street to provide a total of 19 hotel apartments with a rear extension close to the City Walls.
Operations director Max Williams said: “At this time we are not sure what has caused the collapse. However, we are working closely with the council and HSE to establish what has happened to rectify the issue.
“This is an opportunity to sympathetically reinstate the wall in a way that makes it safe for many, many years to come. We would like to ask people not to jump to conclusions with regards to who is responsible but wait for the facts of the matter to be made public.”
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A previous archaeological evaluation by CFA Archaeology Ltd concluded the area close to the City Walls had been an 18th century waste dumping area.
Among the finds were 241 pottery sherds. These were largely from the 18th century but with a small amount of medieval material and a few fragments of pottery from the Romano-British age, referring to the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire.
The document stated: “A design solution has preserved archaeological deposits by reducing the vertical impact by raising the floor level throughout the building.”
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