Work included tearing down former BHS distribution centre

HS2 has confirmed it has carried out more than two-thirds of the required demolition across London, as it reveals the latest images of work being carried out at its Euston station site.

Among the buildings to have been torn down is the 5,000ft warehouse that was previously the distribution centre for collapsed retailer BHS’s London business.

JFH excavators on the roof of the former BHS building Euston Dec 2018 HIGH RES credit John F Hunt

Source: John F Hunt

JFH excavators on the roof of the former BHS building in Euston in December 2018

Work on the site, on Hampstead Road, close to the new station’s proposed Camden Town entrance, was completed last week. 

After the warehouse closed following BHS’s collapse in 2016, the building was temporarily occupied by UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture and used by HS2’s contractors as office space.

The building, which was made of two separate three- and five-storey concrete-framed structures, was demolished over eight months by a Costain and Skanska team and specialist subcontractor John F Hunt.

The milestone follows on from the demolition of the former Ibis hotel on Cardington Street, which was completed last month and the clearance of the nearby disused National Temperance Hospital buildings.

Last week, the chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss revealed that HS2’s future will be decided by the end of the year.

She told a House of Lords committee: “The final go or no-go decision on HS2 will be due by the end of this calendar year.”