In pictures | Construction’s ‘walls of kindness’ help those in need

The initiative was spearheaded by Mark Crouch, a building services manager at Bouygues UK.

“I have never seen this done at a site I have worked on before,” said Crouch. “I put the idea forward to our social value team and together we came up with our very successful wall.

“As soon as we place coats on the wall they are taken by those in need. It really has been a success. It has been great to see how welcomed is has been by everyone in the city centre.”

The wall invites passers-by to hang coats on the pegs attached so others can take them.  

Walls of kindness is an initiative that emerged in Iran during the winter of 2015 to help homeless people keep warm in the freezing temperatures.

Since then, such walls have been replicated around the world, including by construction firms installing them outside building sites.

Last December, Irish building contractor Walls installed a wall of kindness in Dublin’s city centre with a note that read “leave what you don’t need, take what you do”. Donations from staff were hung on the wall to be picked up for those who needed them.

In Belfast, Mascott Construction established a kindness wall in 2021 as part of its Christmas charitable events. Within the first few hours, more than 50 items of clothing were taken from the wall, said the company.

“The wall has been built off our site hoarding with pegs attached where you can take, or leave as gifts, items that can be used to keep people warm at this time of year,” said the company’s Facebook page. 

“The idea is to ‘take a coat if you are cold. Leave a coat if you don’t use it anymore’. We must thank the kind generosity of our staff who have all gotten involved in the initiative by donating coats.”

Other construction companies with similar initiatives include Elliott Group. Its employees and the local community erected a kindness wall on a site in Cork last year.

Do you know of a wall of kindness in a construction site? Email an image to cristina.lago@atompublishing.co.uk and we will feature it in our social media channels or magazine.

This article was originally published in Construction Management.