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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Kersley

Damp, dirt, decay: is the mould in this east London housing block the UK’s worst?

The four-storey Mansfield Court block with a shrub in a container below
Mansfield Court, in Hackney, is home to some of the most extreme examples of building-wide mould that the Observer has seen. Photograph: Sophia Evans/the Observer

Everywhere you look in Paige Whyte’s flat, you can find mould. It spreads across the bathroom and encircles the skirting board of her bedroom and corridors. Slowly but inevitably, it has stared infecting everything: bags, clothes, toys, even her tattoo tools. Her bed is so badly infested with mould that much of the headboard’s grey fabric recently turned green.

The problem has become so bad she has swapped rooms with her young son to ensure he sleeps in the one part of the house less riddled with spores.

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