One of Princess Diana’s favourite dressmakers in Knightsbridge was inundated with floodwater on Tuesday after more than an inch of rain fell on the capital in under an hour.
Flash floods in Knightsbridge burst into luxury shops with cars and buses spraying brown water along the high street as drains were quickly overwhelmed on Tuesday.
Jacques Azagury, who runs Azagury Designs, had mud splattered all over his dress shop’s floor as firefighters desperately pumped out the water.
He told the BBC: “I don’t know how long the clean up will take or when we will be able to reopen again. It depends on how much help we get.”
Knightsbridge looking a bit flooded... pic.twitter.com/0YVhTQn31f
— Brother James (@Brojames_music) October 5, 2021
Azagury has created clothes for Princess Diana, Helen Mirren and Sheridan Smith. Azagury would visit Diana for dress fittings at her apartment in nearby Kensington Palace.
Firefighters carried schoolchildren and women to safety from the floodwater in Knightsbridge as other businesses counted the cost of the damage.
A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said the force was called out to 114 floods between midnight and 8am on Tuesday.
She said: “Control Officers introduced batch mobilising to certain incidents, prioritising calls where there was a risk to life and attending other calls as non-emergencies.”
Transport for London (TfL) said before 7am that at least four lines were suspended or severely delayed due to the floods.
By 10.30am TfL reported a good service had resumed on most lines.
Floodwater at Imperial Wharf had led to the London Overground being suspended between Kensington (Olympia) and Clapham Junction.
In north London, drivers ploughed on through the build-up of floodwater as traffic jams blocked Hampstead Road–also besmirched by road works.
Hampstead Road flooded due to rain! Just a heads up for anyone commuting this morning! #London #LondonTraffic #trafficupdate #Centrallondon #hs2 #HeavyRains pic.twitter.com/UnEWHhPBex
— Melisa (@Melisasnaps) October 5, 2021
In south London, videos emerged of drains coughing water back up onto the streets of Croydon as residents complained about poor infrastructure.
The A4 just past the Hammersmith Flyover had a whole lane completely submerged in west London.
The Met Office tweeted: “Torrential rain continues to move east this morning, with localised flooding possible.
“St James’s Park in London has recorded 26mm (just over an inch) of rain in the past hour.”
The national forecaster has a yellow weather warning in place running from 2am to midnight Tuesday, with the worst affected areas predicted to be the East and North East, as opposed to London and the South East.”
More than 200,000 London homes and businesses are at risk from flash flooding caused by intense rainfall.
The warning came last month when the iconic Tower Bridge flooded after rain overwhelmed security barriers and dirt clogged the drains.
