A huge former Marks & Spencer store has been flattened after sitting empty for nearly a decade, to make way for an impressive town centre regeneration project. The megastore, alongside a former British Home Stores (BHS) site, was demolished in a £2million project in Northampton town centre ahead of the construction of new flats.
West Northamptonshire Council is set to use the area as part of a major development that will regenerate the town. The demolition works, carried out by deconstruction giant Colemans, began in September 2025 and have finally been completed. The project has not been without its challenges, as the flattening of both buildings involved the removal of asbestos. The abandoned shops will be replaced by a £9.7million project to build new retail and leisure spaces in the centre of Northampton. Plans for more than 200 build-to-rent homes are also in the works.
The completion of the demolition has been hailed as a “significant milestone” for the East Midlands town, which is also one of the largest in England. A Colemans spokesperson said the team worked hard to deliver the project “safely, efficiently and with minimal disruption,” The Sun reported.
Reform councillor, Kamala Guliyeva, cabinet member for local economy, culture and leisure at West Northamptonshire Council, explained: “The completion of these demolition works is a significant milestone for Northampton town centre.
“It represents real progress in transforming this key area and creating new opportunities for residents, businesses and visitors,” she added.
“We are committed to bringing forward high-quality development that supports our local economy and helps breathe new life into the town centre, and this work lays the foundations for that next chapter.”
The site has been empty since M&S shut in 2018 and BHS, a department store retailer that primarily sells clothing and household items, two years earlier.
Marks & Spencer closed 27 stores in 2025 and an additional 14 in the first half of 2026, as part of a broader, ongoing company strategy launched in 2022 to reduce its full-line stores from 247 to 180 by 2028. Notable locations shuttered include flagship branches like Wolverhampton in September 2025 and the Riverside Retail Park in Warrington last month.
Meanwhile, BHS, founded in 1928, was one of the UK’s largest high-street department store chains, famous for selling clothing and household goods. After entering administration and closing its final 22 stores in 2016, the brand was revived as an online-only retailer. As of June 2025, it operates one final surviving physical location in Doha, Qatar.