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Work starts on delayed £12m leisure hub

Alex PopeNorthamptonshire
News imageAlex Pope/BBC The outside of the former Market Walk shopping centre, with a man in a high-vis jacket in the doorway, and three other people to the right. A man is by a cash machine to the right. There is a white frame round the building the front boarded up with signs on it. Alex Pope/BBC
The building was called Market Walk before it closed, was previously known as Peacock Place

Work has started on a delayed £12m entertainment hub set to transform a former shopping centre that has been unused for years.

The Stack Leisure venue, to be created in the old Market Walk building in the centre of Northampton, would include independent restaurants, bars, live entertainment and community events, the company behind the scheme said.

It said "non-structural dismantling" of the existing building's interior was under way.

The company had previously said the venue would open this year but confirmed that due to the "scale and complexity of the transformation", no opening date had been set.

News imageSTACK Councillor Nigel Stansfield, Councillor James Petter, Gemma Dishman, Paul Wright, Stuart Timmiss, all standing on a glass walkway, wearing hard hats, smiling and looking at the camera. STACK
Councillors and Stack workers have been inside the empty building to see how work was coming along

Once survey work was complete, its layout and design would be finalised, Stack said.

Demolition work will then start, with all existing walls, escalators and lifts removed.

News imageSTACK Computer-generated mock up of Stack, a three-storey building with coffee shops on the ground floor. The upper floors have balconies made of a series of what look like girders, which jut out from the front of the building. People can be seen eating and drinking on the balconies.STACK
A computer-generated image shows how the building could look when complete

A spokesperson for Stack said it was "a major project – both in scale and ambition" and one of its "most ambitious leisure projects to date".

"The works taking place now are a critical step in understanding Market Walk and making sure we get the design absolutely right," they said.

"This is about doing the job properly and creating a destination Northampton can be proud of."

News imageAlex Pope/BBC Signs on a boarded-up door, with a keypad on it, showing that demolition work is due to start. Signs behind it have been ripped. Alex Pope/BBC
Signs on the doors warn that demolition work will be taking place

Reform UK's James Petter, cabinet member for local economy, culture and leisure at West Northamptonshire Council, said: "This development will bring new energy into the town centre and will provide something for everyone across West Northamptonshire.

"This project will support existing businesses, attract new visitors, and create a destination that works for both the daytime and evening economy."

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