…. and where you would normally find lockers there is a cloakroom area where clothes are watched over by a full-time attendant.

“We didn’t want to use lockers because they get abused. Keys get lost and they are forced open and clothes don’t dry".

Instead, workers are using a system that is modeled on the Tate Modern art gallery, across the river.

At the end of the day, workers change in a large open plan area – and are handed baskets into which they hang their boots. These are then hung in a centrally heated, ventilated area.

For security and quick identification, each basket has a number which corresponds to the number on the workers electronic security card that he or she uses to access the site. “People were slightly suspicious in the beginning that their belongings were being left out in the open”. “But we’ve got security cameras where their things are kept, and the area is kept very clean. The changing areas are never left dirty. Clothes aren’t left lying around and people can’t leave food in lockers and go off”.

He argues that, while the initial outlay may be slightly more than usual, the system is particularly sustainable. At the end of each project, lockers usually have to be thrown away because they have been so badly damaged. But the baskets can be moved from job to job.

“Peoples clothes will also dry much better here”, he says. “This is a heated facility with good extraction”.

Since the project started his team has added an extra facility – an express drying room.

We call it the extreme weather drying room. “Some of the guys are standing out in the rain all day, and we found that their clothes wouldn’t dry unless you did something special”.