Work to transform Wolverhampton’s historic Springfield Brewery site has been halted due to the housing slump, it has emerged.
The disused former brewery plot, on Cambridge Street, is set to remain as a derelict eyesore for at least another 12 months after developers delayed their starting date.
Bryant Homes was due to be on site now creating hundreds of homes and revive it after more than 15 years lying dormant.
But it has emerged the company, which is part of Taylor Wimpey and recently announced it would be shedding 600 jobs due to the slump in the housing market, would not be moving in to start work until next year.
Simon Hill, boss of Simon Developments and one of the leaders of the project, confirmed the delay today.
His side of the project, which is seeing the restoration of some of the brewery’s old buildings, had also slowed down as a result.
“Our workers are still at the site but we have slowed everything down because we would have been finished by Christmas at the rate we were going,” he said.
“Bryant Homes won’t now be moving on to the site until next year now and so we are planning to get our work completed by April.”
The project to redevelop the brewery, which dates back to 1874, has been hit by delays, including an arson attack in 2004 which destroyed much of the site.
Councillor Paddy Bradley, Wolverhampton City Council’s regeneration chief, described the latest setback as a “terrible shame”. “We have to stay positive though, accept the way the economical climate is at the moment, and know that this will get done, even if it is later than we expected,” she said.
Up to 300 apartments and homes are to be created under the scheme, which will also see old cobbles relaid. The war memorial that stood on the site until a few years ago is also set to be reinstalled.
4 Comments
i wish that some one would also open up a history brewery there as well on some of the old bildings as we will lose the history of the site ????
Nicky,
It’s the same everywhere at the moment. Too much of our history and heritage is being lost at an alarming rate. Then after places have been either demolished/converted etc, the majority of them don’t have any kind of museum to show what the building was used for, so our children won’t know the history of where they live.
Do we need more poor new builds, when most of the existing housing projects are half full? (And poorly built)
have a look at http://www.springfieldbrewery.co.uk - lots of great images of the site and a DVD available - the council have had one for their archives and this also appeared in the Express and Star recently