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Old department stores emptied ahead of demolition

Martin Heath & Annabel Amos
BBC News, Northamptonshire
Annabel Amos/BBC Wendy Thompson with white hard hat and yellow hi-vis. She has medium-length straight brown hair. She is standing in a cleared retail room, showing the concrete floor. There are bare walls in the background and the false ceiling has been removed.Annabel Amos/BBC
Wendy Thompson of West Northamptonshire Council said this was one project she really wanted to work on

A regeneration project leader has been describing how workers removing a wall found heads, legs and bodies - of mannequins.

The scheme involves the demolition of Northampton's BHS and Marks & Spencer stores as well as a job centre, to be replaced with housing, shops and leisure facilities.

The inside of the structures has now been cleared of trading equipment ready for the excavators to move in.

The project leader, Wendy Thompson, from West Northamptonshire Council, said the process was "a complicated jigsaw".

Annabel Amos/BBC Aerial shot showing roofs of commercial buildings, some with lit-up windows. There is also air conditioning / heating plant. There is a red car parked on one of the levels of roof.Annabel Amos/BBC
The two major stores occupied large areas of retail space in Abington Street

Northampton lost two of its major stores on Abington Street when BHS closed in 2016 and M&S followed two years later.

The two companies accounted for about 150,00 sq ft (13,935 sq m) of retail space.

Ms Thompson, West Northamptonshire Council's head of major projects, said the process of acquiring the buildings and clearing them ready for demolition was "a long journey".

"It's such a complicated jigsaw bringing a site to this stage, ready for the deconstruction works to start," she said.

Annabel Amos/BBC Plaster-covered interior walls of a room,with the false ceiling removed and large square windows on the far side. The shadow from the windows is visible on the concrete floor.Annabel Amos/BBC
All kinds of rubbish from the retail days have been cleared from the buildings, which now look very bare inside

She added: "There were rooms that were full of racking. We were taking down walls and finding heads and arms and bodies of mannequins.

"To prepare for demolition, you have to remove the electrics, the water and the gas supplies. We've had to remove two sub-stations from the site."

Once the buildings have gone, the site will be turned into flats with some shops and leisure facilities on the ground floor.

Annabel Amos/BBC Mark Fenning with short blonde hair and a faint beard smiling at the camera wearing an orange hi-vis and white shirt. There is a boarded-up building behind him, showing pictures of the project that is planned for the area. There are barriers separating the public from pavement works behind him.Annabel Amos/BBC
Mark Fenning from Colemans said small robotic machines would start the demolition work

Mark Fenning and his team from Colemans demolition will now be taking over to begin the task of clearing the structures.

He said: "Initially, we'll have robotic demolition, quite small, and they're going to be brought in from the service deck. They'll do all the delicate work around the live structures."

That part of the process will be followed by heavy excavators.

"We'll then be making our way sequentially through the structure, segregating materials as we go," he added.

Substances like hardcore and brick will be crushed on site and used in the construction project.

Annabel Amos/BBC Aerial shot showing roofs of commercial buildings with heating/air conditioning plant visible. The art deco white arcade building on Abington Street is visible to the left. The tower of St Giles Church is also visible to the left.Annabel Amos/BBC
The demolition phase of the project is expected to finish early next year

'Potential'

Asbestos is present in the buildings so that has to be dealt with according to strict rules.

Another challenge will be the presence, next to the old BHS store, of a functioning mobile phone shop.

Mr Fenning added: "We have to make sure that we get the propping in place [there] to support the structure while we're doing the demolition work."

The council said this phase of the project was scheduled for completion in early 2026, and would "unlock the potential of the town centre".

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