For all those hoping for the pizazz and flamboyance of an implosive demolition, I'm afraid you're going to need disguise your bitter disappointment for the news I'm about to deliver. Aspen House will be removed from the Swindon skyline floor by floor. Much like an elderly relative sitting in God's waiting room waiting for the inevitable, the building will linger on as demolition crews hoist heavy machinery to the roof and erase this blot on the landscape piece by piece until they reach the third floor.
In the method statement submitted by Lawson Demolition to the council as part of the planning application to knock down the building, it is revealed that scaffolding will be erected around the main tower of the building, and the rooftop equipment will be lowered by crane to the ground. Thereafter small tracked vehicles will be lifted onto the roof to break up the concrete floor by floor with the remains of the building being delivered to the ground floor by way of the old lift shafts.
Once the tower is reduced down to the third floor, long-reach equipment will be brought in to finish the job on both the main tower and Cheltenham House which along with Aspen House, contained the registry office and my old lunchtime haunt, Circle 7.
With this information, I respectfully request that the queue of ex-Heath Lambert staff that had formed ready to press the plunger of doom on this much disliked building, please disperse immediately.