As told to Moyra Ashford

I was born in Portugal in 1935. I am 90 years old.

In 1966 I was living in Montagu Square, London when I found a job through an advert in the Evening Standard. A company in Wolverhampton was looking for a caretaker to manage the building and the tenants at 56 Hampstead Road. There were six flats. They offered accommodation and a small wage. I took the job and was there from 1966 to 1973 with my wife Cecilia and our two young children, Mark and Lisa.

In about 1971, Stock Conversion bought the building and everything went downhill after this. They never did repairs. They wrote to us and said they wanted us all out. Some tenants left of their own accord and only the single people remained – a girl from Egypt and two lads, one from Venezuela and one from Portugal. I stopped paying the rent. I borrowed money to buy a house in Acton and although the house was in a poor state of repair, Cecilia and the children moved in.

On the morning of Saturday 13^th October 1973, the Egyptian girl left early for work. She was a chambermaid at the Cumberland Hotel and started her shift at 7 am. At around 7.30 am I was talking with the lads, standing near a back window. We heard a loud rumbling, like an earthquake. We opened the window and flung ourselves onto a flat roof below. The front of the building collapsed like a pack of cards.

The emergency services were called. A firemen came up a ladder and got us down. A policeman held my shoulder and said, ‘It’s understandable that you are shaky’. The ambulance wanted to take us to hospital, but I said, ‘I just want a cup of tea’. I’d only bruised my arm.

I believe Stock Conversion were responsible. In the days before the collapse Stock Conversion workmen were in the basement. I heard a lot of banging. I think they weakened the structure. The basement was empty because the caravan shop that stored their stock there had closed down.

About two weeks later a letter came from Stock Conversion calling us for a meeting. They offered me £1,000 compensation. I said, ‘That’s peanuts’. They said, ‘That’s all we can afford’. What could I do? We all accepted. The lads got £750 each and the girl, £500. We never saw each other again.

I am a Catholic and believe Nossa Senhora de Fatima lent us a hand. It was on October 13th (1917) that the Virgin Mary appeared for the last time to the three children, the three little shepherds, on the hillside.

Fifty one years later I am still bitter; I still have anxiety attacks. I used to love the Warren Street area, but I haven’t been back there since 1973. It was full of life until Stock Conversion built that tower. The shopkeepers and residents complained, but it didn’t make any difference.

See the Collapse collection for more photographs and some press cuttings of the sudden collapse of 56-58 Hampstead Road.

Read more about the author Mario Castro