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Manchester, England - May 1, 2025: A mural of English goalkeeper Mary Earps with the words "Welcome to Manchester" on Partridge St, near Old Trafford, Stretford.
Puffs of disintegrating concrete appear as the jackhammer thuds into the ground. A bucket attachment waits in the background, presumably to scrape up the fractured concrete later.
The jackhammer attachment is back. Maybe the concrete is being broken up, ready for whatever new building work will happen eventually. It is a drizzly day and the refining of the rubble into something with more tilth isn't happening so far. Maybe the drizzle makes it too difficult.
Tuesday 27 May 2025. As I look out of the window, I'm learning more than I thought I needed to about the demolition process. The broken up rubble is taken by truck to a machine I can't see, where it is pulverised and then taken to the mound at the back of the photo, on the left. From here, bucketfuls are dropped onto the conveyor belt of another machine that pulverises the material further, before another JCB scoops it up and deposits it onto the pile at the back of the photo on the right. It is mesmerising to watch.
A man has to stand and spray water onto the JCB that is scraping up the rubble. Where the building was looks like old photographs of bits of Manchester city centre in the 1960s, with the remains of the bomb damage from the Second World War still present.
Most of the rubble is out of sight now, but I can still hear the machines crushing it up. Apart from when this photo was taken. They'd knocked off for lunch at this point.
One of the excavators has a pneumatic drill attachment now. The other is scooping up the pulverised rubble and dumping it into shipping containers. It's nice to see more sky.
It wasn't quite the end. There was still the empty sign holder on its RSJ legs to fell. I missed it because I was at work. This is the evening view of the flattened landscape.
There are plenty of men in hi vis and hard hats around to watch the excavators pulverising and scooping up the rubble from the former RAC call centre.
I've been interested by the way the excavators are each perched on their own rubble mound.
It has been a bit like being on an urban safari, watching the demolition. Excavators as wild animals.
14 July 2022, when the call centre was still operational and the trees still lush.
The sign on the side of the building always made me smile. Wryly. It read "A complete breakdown service as standard". I wasn't happy at work at the time. I'll let you fill in the blanks.
The spotlights in the disused RAC call centre car park used to shine directly into our house. We knew something was about to happen when they were finally turned off ten months later.
Demolition of the former RAC call centre.
Demolition of the former RAC call centre.
On Fridays, work stops in the middle of the day and doesn't resume until Monday.
Demolition of the former RAC call centre.
The spotlights in the car park of the former RAC call centre finally switched off. The site had been sold the previous year, shortly after which the trees were chopped down. The switching off of the lights was a blessing.
