Alan Clawley reports on the timescale for Paradise Circus redevelopment.
The city planners have now given me the Demolition Method Statement for Paradise Circus site produced by Carillion and demolition specialists DSM.
I correctly predicted the difficulties of the task in my previous article, but their solution is to divide the site into 14 areas and demolish the Ziggurat in two stages. Although no overall timetable is given we can assume that the various buildings and parts of buildings will be tackled in the order they are listed.
The number of weeks allowed for each area is given and adds up to 140 weeks, or roughly three years, assuming that each area has to be dealt with in sequence. That timing makes sense as the Conservatoire is not expected to move out before 2017 when its new building is finished in Eastside.
We can therefore look forward to nearly three years of demolition and building construction in Paradise Circus followed by several more years of more demolition and new building construction.
Although the empty buildings have been stripped out it seems unlikely that serious demolition will start before May 2015. Not surprisingly, the first building that we shall see being wrecked is Chamberlain House, followed by the Pedestrian Link Bridge, the JCT Lecture Theatre (Library Theatre), the Yardbird, the Staircase and Pond, and the Link Building. All of this is scheduled to last 37 weeks, which would take into December 2015.
Part of the Ziggurat furthest away from the Conservatoire will be demolished next and will take 16 weeks. The Council will be anxious to start work by January 2016 when its Certificate of Immunity from Listing expires but it looks like a close-run thing. Friends of the Central Library are ready to submit a listing application if the building is still standing on the expiry date.
The rest of 2016 will be also taken up with the demolition of the link bridge, the Lending Library and the Council Car Park.
The final tranche of demolition can only start when the Conservatoire has vacated its buildings, presumably some time in 2017 if all goes to plan. The Adrian Boult Hall will be first to come down, followed by the South elevation of the Ziggurat. Fletchers Walk and the Conservatoire itself will be the last to go.
The Ziggurat will therefore undergo a protracted demolition process that could start in December this year and only end in 2017. This piecemeal approach is necessary because the demolition contractors do not have the entire site to themselves as they would like. They will be moving round demolishing bits and pieces over a period of three years.
Neither the Copthorne Hotel nor Office Number 77, are included in the Demolition Method Statement which could mean that they will not be demolished after all or that they will be demolished after 2017 when the rest of Paradise Circus is developed. Proposals for a 23-storey hotel on the site of the Conservatoire have already been approved and illustrated in the press, but perhaps the Copthorne is having second thoughts.