Demolition work began on Monday morning to tear down one of Newcastle city centre's ugliest buildings.
The northern section of Pilgrim Street will be shut for seven weeks, in the latest phase of plans for HMRC to move thousands of jobs from its bases in Longbenton and Washington to a massive new site. The demise of the brutalist Commercial Union House offices, long regarded as one of the city’s most unattractive blocks, is part of the huge transformation that will ultimately involve more than 9,000 government workers moving into the new Pilgrim’s Quarter complex.
The Stack shipping container village on the site of the old Odeon cinema also closed down earlier this month to make way for the giant new development, which was approved by Newcastle City Council in April, and has now been partly dismantled. Nearby Bamburgh House will also be demolished, as will the interior of the Art Deco Carliol House, while the Dex car garage has already been knocked down.
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