Cawarden demolishes the former Debenhams building in Derby City centre to help clear the way for a £200 million regeneration project for the Becketwell area.

On behalf of Derby City Council, Cawarden was employed as Principal Contractor to undertake the demolition of the former Debenhams building in Derby, to help clear the way for a £200 million regeneration project for the Becketwell area.

The demolition of the four-storey structure – complete with two basement levels and an iconic curved frontage – allowed Cawarden to expertly demonstrate its demolition engineering capabilities on home soil for working on large, complex sites with significant space constraints and surrounding live infrastructure and operations. 

Following a successful competitive tender and subsequent contract award, we established a site compound, welfare and offices.

The first phase of work involved an extensive scaffold – complete with fan protection and cantilevered sections – to be erected to safely encapsulate the site. The building interior was then stripped – including floors and ceilings to be recycled. Existing services were isolated and adapted to facilitate the works and all highways and pavement permits were organised.

In preparation for the main structural deconstruction and demolition, items of plant and machinery were moved in via a 100-tonne crane.

Extra care was taken to demolish the façade of the building which was executed using our high-reach machine and crane, and in some instances, sections were meticulously removed by hand.

On completion of the structural demolition, we broke out and processed the existing ground floor slabs and mapped the foundations to digitally record their location and size. The basement levels were retained for the client and were protected throughout.

We used several methodologies to complete the demolition safely and efficiently. Different activities were allowed to overlap and be completed in tandem to reduce the overall programme for the client.

The complexities also extended to archaeological attendance and separating shared party walls and re-building them again for the neighbouring church and restaurant.

Every effort was made to keep disturbances to a minimum and we carried out real-time environmental noise, dust and vibration monitoring. Neighbours were kept informed about the work taking place through regular contact with the site team and a monthly newsletter. Dust suppression was in place to address working in such close proximity to the public and noisy works were ceased whenever a funeral was taking place at the neighbouring church.

Through a ‘walk under’ scaffold, we maintained pedestrian access to the pavement of Victoria Street and kept the bus stops operational and at the existing locations throughout.

All materials removed from the project were reused and diverted from landfill where possible, to achieve a recycling target of 97% of non-hazardous waste.

Delivery of the contract was monitored daily against the project programme. Regular site meetings with meeting minutes took place between Cawarden and Derby City Council to review overall progress, the efficient completion of phased works, cost planning and management, and to ensure client satisfaction.

The completion of the demolition works marked a key milestone for the regeneration of the site.