Demolition of the Agora Centre in Wolverton has completed. It was a great way for TOWN, working with Milton Keynes City Council, to start 2023. This is the first-step in realising our Love Wolverton scheme which the TOWN team has been working on for a decade.

Neil Murphy and Jonny Anstead were first involved in the project as part of the consultancy team who helped develop the Wolverton Neighbourhood Plan. Since then, TOWN worked up proposals for the site through planning and now into delivery. Now that the Agora Centre is gone, we are looking forward to delivering 115 new homes including Still Green Cohousing, 8 commercial units, a community space and extensive public realm that will reconnect the two sides of Wolverton town centre.

Agora demolition from May 2022 to a snowy December 2022

Love Wolverton reflects long-held ambitions of the community to see the Agora Centre site redeveloped; as a failed 1970s shopping centre it blighted the town centre for several decades. The excitement of the community to see the Agora gone is palpable. With the Agora gone, it is possible to take-in the true size of the site for the first time and understand how the new development will reconnect two halves of the town centre.

The demolition was a complex process, owing to the age of the building it contained extensive asbestos which had to be properly removed. Despite extensive surveys before demolition, there were a number of discoveries of asbestos hidden well within the structure and in unusual locations. This has all been safely removed and all that remains on site is large piles of certified clean and asbestos-free crushed material. This material will be used to level the site and as part of sustainable drainage systems.

Wolverton site in December 2022

Now we’re looking ahead to construction of the new development commencing this summer.

Find out more about Love Wolverton by visiting the project page or the Love Wolverton website.

All photography © copyright TOWN and Simon Beckett.