Demolition has begun today (Monday, 16 January) on a former office building in Clacton.

Carnarvon House, a disused three-storey building in Carnarvon Road, is owned by Tendring District Council (TDC) and in recent years was leased to the NHS as office space until it was no longer needed.

It has lain empty since the NHS vacated it, with some temporary use as a location base and for filming for the movie Morris Men, shot in and around Tendring; and in May 2021 TDC’s Cabinet agreed to the demolition in principle.

Internal strip-out work began before Christmas, with planning consent for the building to be knocked down granted last month, and full demolition has started today – being undertaken by Capstan Group Services.

Carlo Guglielmi, TDC Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Resource, said he was pleased to see the building come down.

“While it has served the public well over the years, Carnarvon House is very much of its time and I think everyone will be pleased to see it demolished,” Councillor Guglielmi said.

“Clearing the site provides us with a real opportunity to transform this corner of Clacton town centre – on a major road used by thousands of residents and visitors each year – into something worthy of the 21^st Century.

“Demolition also removes the ongoing costs we face paying for an empty building too.”

Work is expected to last 4-5 weeks, and there may be some temporary closures of the walkway linking the High Street car park and Station Road while demolition is carried out.

An estimated 90% of materials from within the building, along with concrete from demolition, will be recycled by the contractors.

TDC has received a government grant of £420,000 from phase two of the Brownfield Land Release Fund to pay for re-development of the site.

Longer-term, the site is proposed for development as a flexible use community space and housing in the authority’s bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.

The project has been developed with the support of the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF2) from the One Public Estate programme – which supports regeneration projects turning derelict or underused council land into space for new homes.