diff --git a/view.hpp b/view.hpp
index 8d9d785b..542b87e5 100644
--- a/view.hpp
+++ b/view.hpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include "cast.hpp"
 #include "types/traits.hpp"
 #include "maths.hpp"
+#include "platform.hpp"
 
 #include <cstdlib>
 #include <iosfwd>
@@ -653,6 +654,14 @@ namespace util {
     ValueT
     read (util::view<ByteT*> &buffer)
     {
+        // we disable the class-memaccess warning so that we can memcpy into
+        // types that we know are safe but the compiler will complain about.
+        // this occurs commonly with oddly packed structures, eg anything
+        // that uses gnu::packed
+#if defined(COMPILER_GCC)
+#pragma GCC diagnostic push
+#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wclass-memaccess"
+#endif
         if (unlikely (sizeof (ValueT) > buffer.size ()))
             throw std::runtime_error ("insufficient data for extraction");
 
@@ -660,6 +669,9 @@ namespace util {
         memcpy (&res, buffer.data (), sizeof (ValueT));
         buffer = buffer.consume (sizeof (ValueT));
         return res;
+#if defined(COMPILER_GCC)
+#pragma GCC diagnostic pop
+#endif
     }