Firefighters at the scene of the accident on Charing Cross Road
(Picture: @KetoCancerQueen)A worker was crushed to death when a pop-up urinal he had been repairing “fell quite suddenly”, an inquest has heard.
Kevin Holding, 60, from south-east London, was killed by the public toilet outside the Palace Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue on January 27.
Mr Holding was pronounced dead at 3.40pm more than two hours after becoming trapped as he neared completion of his repair work. He was identified by his Oyster card.
A remote inquest hearing at West London Coroners Court heard that although paramedics arrived at 1.05pm there was a delay in the arrival of a vehicle to help lift the urinal, until about 3.15pm.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as compression asphyxia.
The inquest heard the father-of-three was employed by Hi-tech Washroom Solutions Limited and lived with his partner in Beckinham.
Following his death, his daughter posted an image of Mr Holding hoisting his granddaughter on his shoulders.
She added simply: “She will know you as the best grangrand [sic] in the whole world.”
Dozens of firefighters spent more than two-and-a-half hours trying to free him, eventually using a winch to prise the urinal open.
The incident happened in Cambridge Circus - a junction connecting Charing Cross Road with Shaftesbury Avenue, in the heart of London’s hugely popular theatre district.
The urinal was located yards from the Palace Theatre, currently home to award-winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
