Tuesday August 4, 2020

Derby City centre’s former Debenhams store – a 4-storey structure complete with two basement levels – was designed by Evans, Wright and Woollatt. It was originally constructed and opened in the early 1960s as Ranby’s, before becoming Debenhams in the 1970s. With an iconic curved frontage constructed with glass, steel and reinforced concrete, the building was acclaimed as a fine example of modernist architecture. Debenhams continued for a further 47 years on the site before the store moved to the Westfield Shopping Centre in 2007, now Intu, leaving the building unoccupied for the intervening 12 years.

The multi-million-pound project to transform Derby’s Becketwell area into a “showcase” for the city is set to include a 3,500-capacity music, entertainment and conference venue, a two-tower apartment block, car parking, servicing and a new public square.

Completion of the demolition works is a key milestone for this high-profile regeneration scheme.

Find out how we did it in this month’s Demolition & Dismantling Magazine, published by the NFDC. Click here.