Time has run out for Chelmsford's biggest architectural eyesore.

The demolition of Chelmsford Bus Station notched up a gear this week.

The town's old bus station closed in November when the main depot transferred to a new £4 million garage facility at Widford Business Park.

Now the first steps to a 21st century bus terminal on the existing site, next to the Duke Street railway station, can proceed.

Demolition contractors Heard have made a first 'nibble' at the hint of art deco, late 1930s building.

By the end of February boss Jim Heard reckons he will have removed for recycling around 12,000 tonnes of concrete, brick and steel.

He is using five machines, including a giant 60 tonne hydraulic excavator for breaking up the floors and foundations.

Sixty tonnes of asbestos have already been removed using specialist equipment, added Mr Heard.

Chelmsford had a very small bus station, not much more than a high roofed cottage, after the First World War.

By 1930 the town was bustling with engineering businesses and an open fronted terminal with echelon parking for the smart "badger-faced" double decker buses of the time was built.

Within a few years even this was not enough for mushrooming Chelmsford and the building now being demolished took shape by 1937, finished in brick.

It underwent a final transformation, including the rendering of the brick exterior, in the early 1970s.

From then onwards the building gradually declined into the butt of many jokes and serious criticism as the "town's worst eyesore" by conservation group the Chelmsford Society.

Ron Alcock was one of the witnesses without a tear in his eye as the Heard demolition equipment went to work on Thursday.

He said: "I have had decades looking at that monstrosity from my shop, Finch's shoes, from where I recently retired.

"For me the going of this building is long overdue. It has been the worst possible image for our county town seen as the first impression of Chelmsford by so many people arriving here by train or coach.

" The future will, I hope, be so much better," said Mr Alcock, who is also a borough councillor at Chelmer Village.

Jim Heard, boss of the demolition firm, underlined the fact that time had come for change by removing the bus station clock, which had not worked for some years, from the facade and crushing it in the claws of one of his heavy wreckers.

The new bus terminal, being paid for by Essex County Council, is a £4million part of an £80-million overall project.

It will replenish the site with a tower block of flats offices and shops including a new travel and tourist information centre.

The new bus station, which has been criticised for having only one planned toilet, should be ready inside 18 months.

Published Wednesday January 19, 2005

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