The world famous Hacienda night-club was renowned for performances by many of today’s leading artists. Indeed, it was the venue for Madonna’s first appearance in the UK.

The Hacienda was located in the heart of Manchester City Centre, on the corner of Albion Wharf and Whitworth Street. The site is bounded by the Rochdale Canal with numerous office complexes and an adjacent hotel. Permits and licences were negotiated with the City of Manchester and the Rochdale Canal Company, enabling the erection of secure hoarding to all elevations.

The project called for the asbestos removal, soft strip and demolition to basement level.

Due to the building’s history, the entire contents of the night-club, including fixtures, fittings, stages, bars etc., had to be carefully dismantled, packaged and transported to auction rooms and re-erected for a charity auction. Abseilers were employed to remove the external light fittings to the building.

The final stage of the ‘auction strip out’ necessitated the removal of the roof to enable the eight main supporting columns to be taken down in preparation for despatch to the auction site.

In order to allow for the demolition works to proceed, the building was fully scaffolded and sheeted, allowing members of the public to go about their daily business with the minimal amount of disruption.

Following the completion of all preparation works, a super long-reach excavator, equipped with attachments, began to demolish the structure down to basement level. Due to the location of the site, debris had to be removed in a planned sequence to ensure that vehicle movements did not disrupt the City Centre traffic.

Connell Brothers designed and installed temporary supports to the Whitworth Street and Rochdale Canal elevations to hold back the retaining walls, particularly as the water level on the canal elevation was 2 metres higher than basement level.

This high profile project created huge media interest and required liaison with both radio stations and camera crews from around the world.

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