Burst water main causes havoc in south-east London flooding roads, closing school and hitting supplies

Thames Water services are now being restored to customers but some may experience low pressure
Bill McLoughlin6 January 2023

A major water main burst and flooded multiple parts of south-east London on Friday morning - flooding homes, hitting supplies to many others and forcing a school to close.

According to Thames Water, a large 23” pipe burst on Eltham Road, causing several areas to be left with low pressure or without water.

The burst water main on Eltham Road on Friday morning
LFB

Thames Water said the incident affected the SE3, SE7, SE9, SE10, SE12, SE13 and SE15 postcodes.

As of 2pm, Thames Water said they had shut off the flow of water from the burst pipe and had restored supplies to most in the area.

A spokesperson told the Evening Standard: “We’re sorry to customers who experienced low pressure or no water this morning, following a large burst pipe on the A20 Eltham Road, in SE12.

“Most supplies have returned to the area and some customers may experience low pressure while this continues to get back to normal.

“We’ll now start work to repair the pipe and reopen the road. We also have loss adjustors on site to speak to customers affected by flooding during the burst.

“We apologise to drivers affected by the closure of the A20 and for the disruption this has caused.”

Due to the leak, Blackheath High School has also said that its junior school will be closed for the day.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has advised residents to avoid the area with the flood affecting the Lee Green Fire Station.

One resident, 30, who lives in New Cross, told the Evening Standard: “Of course it’s incredibly frustrating when you wake up and you can’t even wash your face or do anything really.

“We’ve got a couple of big bottles of water to keep us going but if it’s out for a long time we’ll have to get more. Hopefully it can get fixed and sorted soon.”

Local roads near Greenwich were closed
LFB

The LFB said it was called to the burst water main at 4.38am.

Approximately ten fire engines and 70 firefighters from across south-east London are at the scene.

The LFB added that six properties have been flooded and significant road closures have been put in place.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in