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Work under way to renovate empty civic centre

Scott BinghamSouth West
News imageBBC The picture shows a tall, rectangular tower with a grid of small square windows running across its entire front. The building looks weathered and empty, with many of the windows appearing dark or discoloured. It stands above a cluster of lower, flat‑roofed concrete buildings that look like part of the same complex. To the right, behind the tower, there is an older stone building with pointed rooftops and spires peeking through the trees. In the distance, you can see more low‑rise buildings, patches of greenery and the outline of rolling hills under a bright sky filled with scattered clouds.BBC
The Civic Centre in Plymouth has been empty since 2015

Work is under way to turn an empty civic centre into 144 rental flats and a new skills hub for college students.

The first phase of work to strip out the Civic Centre in Plymouth has finished, including asbestos removal, safety checks and securing the site, said Plymouth City Council.

Surveys are taking place on the building and its grounds, from drainage routes to utility lines to make sure the redevelopment meets modern safety rules.

Councillor Mark Lowry said: "This has been an almighty task just to get to the planning application stage. We want to reassure the public that we are moving at pace and that a phenomenal amount of work is taking place behind the hoardings to get to this stage."

News imageThe picture shows the inside of a building that is being stripped out or undergoing heavy refurbishment. Rubble is piled on the floor in the foreground, made up of broken plaster, tiles and chunks of concrete. A damaged column stands nearby, with its outer surface chipped away so that metal mesh and fragments of plaster are left hanging loose.
Surveys are under way on the building

The Civic Centre, opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962, has been empty since council staff left the premises in 2015.

A previous plan to renovate the 14-storey listed building was abandoned and Plymouth City Council bought the site back from developers Urban Splash in 2024 for £1.

The council now has £18.4m from Homes England for the project and Plymouth City College struck a deal with the council in 2024 to set up a campus on the bottom two floors of the site.

Architect Mark Braund said: "We see this building as more than just a local landmark, it is a key part of Plymouth's past, its evolution as a city post World War Two, and now once again a focal point of transformation for the future."

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