A new Bury | BlogsToday | Updates on the work to transform Bury St Edmunds' old Cattle Market for the 21st century. Brought to you by the editor of the Bury Free Press, Barry P ....

Your Blog Links:

Local Blogs:

My Favourites:

See the curves

The Debenhams store on the Cattle Market site is now taking shape and you can now see it is taking on its curved shape. The escalators have also arrived!

Published Date:

11/04/2008

Modified Date:

11/04/2008

Add a Comment | View Comments(5)

Offensive? Report This Article

Debenhams makes debut

A FLAGSHIP department store is beginning to take shape on the Cattle Market site in Bury St Edmunds.
Curious passers-by can currently see the steel superstructure for the arc development’s anchor Debenhams store being bolted into place, showing the full height of the three-storey building.
Chris Staples, developer Taylor Woodrow’s neighbourhood liaison manager, said: “One of the storeys will be the basement. The whole of the area we’ve excavated will be a steel frame, that will then be made water-tight, before the cladding goes on top.
“We have got the lift and stair cores already and you can see the shuttering into which the concrete is poured.”
With around 100 workers on site, the floor and ramp of the underground car park have been excavated and superstructures to the public venue and retail blocks are beginning to come together.
The £100 million scheme, which is due to open in spring 2009, will see a public venue, 62 apartments and 200 underground car parking spaces, as well as 35 shops in addition to the Debenhams store.

Published Date:

26/10/2007

Modified Date:

26/10/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(5)

Offensive? Report This Article

It's crane crazy

Yesterday afternoon there were three, this morning there were four. Someone's been busy.

The Cattle Market now boasts four tower cranes.

Published Date:

03/10/2007

Modified Date:

26/10/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(2)

Offensive? Report This Article

Towering trio

A third tower crane has been put up on the Cattle Market site this week. It's now a real hive of activity.

The 'hole' for the underground car park is now also enormous.

Published Date:

20/07/2007

Modified Date:

20/07/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(0)

Offensive? Report This Article

A crane's eye view

When Bury Free Press photographer Alex Fairfull was offered the chance to climb the giant crane on the Cattle Market site, he jumped at the chance.

Alex looked a little nervous as he signed the accident waiver form and prepared to climb up the 180 steps to the top of the crane.

Still, he said he felt ‘perfectly safe’ up there – and seemed to enjoy the sights.

“It was lovely. I felt privileged – there are very few people who actually have such a spectacular view.

“I could see right over to Rougham – it was as if Bury was surrounded by a ring of green,” he said.
Alex’s only disappointment was that he could not see Stowmarket, where he lives.

And reporter Mark Beaumont chatted to the crane operator

IT is a dangerous job being a crane driver – especially when police marksmen mistakenly think you are an assassin targeting George Bush.
Thankfully, things are a bit more peaceful for Dave Falzon as he mans the crane on the Cattle Market redevelopment in Bury St Edmunds.
It was while working on building Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs offices in Whitehall, London, four years ago, that Dave nearly came under fire.
“It was the same time as George Bush was visiting. They asked me to come down because they thought I was going to shoot him.
“I could see the police marksmen up on the roof panning across towards me. I was wearing my combat jacket at the time.”
Despite this, the 45-year-old from Rochdale, who has been a crane operator for eight years, lists that as his favourite job.
He spends 45 hours a week in his cab, coming down for a 20-minute break each day to stretch his legs.
It can get lonely up in his cab.
“The only person to talk to is the banksman on the ground. Thankfully, our banksman, Paul Murphy, is a bit of a comedian so that brightens the day up a bit,” said Dave.
Not surprisingly the man with a bird’s eye view of Bury says the view and the freedom are the best things about his job
“I get the odd 15 minutes to myself every so often so I listen to my radio and have a look around,” he said.
“It’s superb.”
And what a view.

Crane factfile

Liebherr 280
ec-h12 crane

Height: 52 metres.
Number of steps: 180
Jib length: 65 metres
Weight it can lift: 12 tonnes (12 cars) at a radius of 23.3metres – 3.5 tonnes at a radius of 65 metres.
Counter weight: 19.6 tonnes
Maximum operating wind speed: 40mph.

To see more pictures from the top of the crane, go to
www.photostoday.co.uk

Published Date:

15/06/2007

Modified Date:

15/06/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(2)

Offensive? Report This Article

It's arc

The name of the Cattle Market development is to be arc, developers Centros Miller have decided.
The name will be on all the branding for the development and was selected with help from consultancy firm Redcow Marketing.
However, the choice has been described as ‘rubbish’ by a senior member of lobby group the Bury Society.
Chairman Simon Pott said: “We think the name is rubbish – we just don’t understand it.
“I can’t believe they have done this without taking into account what the name of the public building is going to be.”
Mr Pott said none of the names put forward – arc, Graze or St Edmund’s Square – conjured up images which reflected the heritage of the historic market town.
“We thought Graze was ridiculous, St Edmund’s Square was boring and predictable and the arc reminded us of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council,” he said.
“We can’t get away from the fact we would have preferred to have named it The Market.”
The choice of name is said to be one which reflects the curving designs of the new Debenhams department store, which is the anchor store for the site, which will feature shops, a venue and homes. This week, boards went up on the site proclaiming the new name.
Ivan Stephenson, Centros Miller’s development manager, said: “We need a strong brand to identify and present the opportunities offered by the scheme.”
Ian Raeburn, from Delancy, one of the developer’s two main shareholders and long-term investor in the development, said: “The arc identity was felt to represent an all-embracing concept which we can use to form a link between the new development and the existing town centre.”
The £105 million development, now under construction by Taylor Woodrow, is due to open February 2009.

Let us know what you think

Published Date:

20/05/2007

Modified Date:

20/05/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(6)

Offensive? Report This Article

A guided tour

This week, reporter Kirsty Marais and photographer Helen Whitcombe were invited for a guided tour around the Cattle Market to view the work being done to prepare the site.

Here are their pictures and story:

LAST year, this site was populated with cars, the Roundhouse, a tea hut, a former pub and the Royal Mail sorting office, but now the Cattle Market looks more like a wasteland.
Builders on the site, which is being transformed into shops, flats and a public venue, have been excavating the ground and driving in sheets of pile to form the first part of the two large basements for the public venue and Debenhams.
A steady stream of lorries – up to 40 a day – are needed to carry away the earth that is being removed.
Chris Staples, project liaison manager for builders Taylor Woodrow, said long trenches were being dug for the two buildings and sheets of pile driven into the ground to support the basement walls.
“Once we have the piling in we can start to excavate the basement and on the inside of the piling a wall will be built with reinforced concrete,” he said.
“Buildings have a certain level of precision and this work has to be correct within inches – but when you get down to the finishing work, we have to be right within millimetres.”
This week, nearly 60 workers were on the site but, as work moves on, the workforce will swell into the hundreds.
In the next two months excavation and piling will continue and work is due to begin on the foundations and ground floor of ‘block A’ – the corner of the site near Palmers, in St Andrew’s Street South.
A series of tower cranes will also appear, with the largest standing at approximately 52m tall.
People watching the work from King’s Road will have seen a large trench in front of Hanchett House, where a wall is being built to separate the building from the new development.

The developers are also starting to think of a name for the place:
WHAT’S in a name? Plenty, according to marketing company RedCow Creative, which has come up with a shortlist of three names to brand the Cattle Market and promote it to retailers and shoppers.
Residents could find themselves visiting The Arc, St Edmund’s Square or Graze when the site opens in 2009.
The marketing firm, which was asked to produce a name by developers Centros Miller, said research had shown the name Cattle Market had negative connotations and could put people off the new site.
A Centros Miller spokesman said: “I think the name Graze has to do with the way we shop nowadays, moving from shop to shop, and The Arc is something to do with East Anglia.”
He said the third name, St Edmund’s Square, had more obvious links to the town’s history.
Councillors and town centre representatives met the developers in January to discuss the possible names, but no agreement has yet been reached.
Centros Miller’s spokesman said the company was still consulting with key groups in Bury about the final name.
But at a meeting of St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Cattle Market redevelopment working party on Wednesday, councillors expressed their dislike for the name Graze.
Cllr Lynsey Alexander, who was involved in January’s meeting with the developers, said: “Although we didn’t come to an agreement, we did say we didn’t like Graze. It was thought that it would become ‘The Grave’.”
Cllr Helen Levack said: “I would love there to be some historical connection with the use of the site, rather than a very modern name.”

And on a less positive note, the front page story of the Bury Free Press this week highlighted the plight of some of the Cattle Market's neighbours:

ANGRY residents are asking for compensation from the Cattle Market construction firm after huge portable buildings sprung up just inches from their homes.
Residents of Nelson Road, in Bury St Edmunds, were shocked to see three storeys of portable cabins built on the adjacent Cattle Market site.
The cabins form part of an office complex that will be used by construction firm Taylor Woodrow for the next two-and-a-half years while building work on the site is completed.
But residents say the cabins are closer to their houses and higher than they expected.
Philip Leslie, of Nelson Road, watched the cabins going up. He said: “We were told they would be two storeys high and we didn’t realise how near they were going to be.
“We feel we’re paying the price of this development. Taylor Woodrow’s tagline is ‘improving the image of construction’ but I would say it is destroying it.”
Frances Penfold, whose garden is overlooked by the cabins, said: “They tell us the windows in the cabins are one-way, but we feel as if we haven’t got any privacy.
“I love gardening and I go out there every day, but the plants out there thrive on the sun and they won’t get that now.”
Temporary cabins as part of an ongoing development are not subject to the same planning laws as permanent structures.
Peter Evenden, chairman of Nelson Road Residents’ Association, said he had asked Taylor Woodrow to consider paying compensation.
Suffolk county councillor Paul Hopfensperger, who lives nearby in Risbygate Street, is backing the residents’ claim. He said: “The residents have not been consulted on this. People were never told this would be overlooking their gardens for two-and-a-half years.”
Borough councillor Paul Farmer has also spoken to residents about their concerns and is advising them on the compensation claim.
“The residents will benefit ultimately from being so close to the development, but nobody expected this to be three storeys high,” he said.
Chris Staples, project liaison manager for Taylor Woodrow, said: “We are aware of the concerns from local residents and will continue to work closely with them and the council.
“Regarding our site accommodation, other alternatives were explored, but the only viable option is near the Risbygate Street entrance.”
A spokeswoman for St Edmundsbury Borough Council said: “Planning permission for the portable cabins is not needed.”

Published Date:

30/03/2007

Modified Date:

30/03/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(3)

Offensive? Report This Article

Crash, bang, wallop . . .

This week saw the old Royal Mail sorting office demolished. This is what we wrote in the Bury Free Press.

GIANT diggers have been working virtually non-stop all week as they sort and smash the rubble that was once the Bury St Edmunds Royal Mail sorting office.
This week, the final part of the building that faced St Andrew’s Street South was demolished as the Cattle Market site resembled a moonscape covered with heavy duty machinery.
The £105 million redevelopment is being built by Taylor Woodrow. The site is being cleared to make way for work to start on the underground car park and basements for the public building and Debenham’s.
Next week, pile driving starts on the underground workings using a special piece of equipment which will cut vibration from the excavation.
Steel sheets will be driven into the ground by a special rig to provide support for basement walls and excavation of the underground chalk.
Chris Staples, neighbourhood liaison manager, said: “For many people in the town this will be their only experience of such a massive development.

What the article doesn't describe is the incredible noise and vibration the demolition caused.
The BFP building was rocked, earthquake like. It very often sounded as though the demolition team was coming through the wall! We 'ducked for cover' more than once.
Still, it was all over in a fairly short period and the paper still came out on Friday.

Published Date:

09/03/2007

Modified Date:

09/03/2007

Add a Comment | View Comments(1)

Offensive? Report This Article

Page:1 of 3
Previous Next

Your Blog Links:

Blog Search / Archive: