Demolition team breaks the bank...

DEMOLITION crews bringing down a 1970s Birmingham office tower have discovered the old banking vaults which served the building.

The former NatWest Tower, on the corner of Colmore Row and Newhall Street, has been razed to make way for a 26-storey replacement.

New pictures have now been released showing demolition workers pulling apart the former vaults which served the bank for many years before the building ceased to have any occupiers in 2003.

Weighing more than a tonne, the vaults are constructed from 50-centimetre thick concrete walls and doors made from 25 centimetre steel.

Work to demolish the 22-storey former bank building, which is being carried out by H Smith Engineering, started in 2015 and is due to be completed in April.

The NatWest Tower will be replaced by a new £60 million office building called 103 Colmore Row in a project led by Rockspring Property Investment Managers and Sterling Property Ventures.

When finished, it will comprise 224,000 sq ft of grade A office space over 19 floors, plus 8,270 sq ft of leisure space, which includes a rooftop restaurant.

Peter Graham, construction director at Sterling Property Ventures, said: “We’re reaching the final stages of the demolition programme.

“The removal of the bank vaults is one of the last significant milestones before we start to turn our attention to the next phase of the project, the construction of the new building, which we’re extremely excited about.”

Completed in 1976, the NatWest Tower was designed by renowned Birmingham architect John Madin and is one of many pieces of his work in the city which have been demolished or still face being razed.