County Square work caught in full flow

Back in 2005, work began to extend the County Square shopping centre which had originally opened 30 years previously – in 1975 as the Tufton Centre.

Even before its first refurbishment which instigated the name change in 1989, the years previously had seen plans unveiled to develop what had been the area behind it.

This consisted of the lower end of Godinton Road, the remainder of Hempsted Street and originally, but not developed, the top of Elwick Road where it meets Bank Street. This was over concerns that the development may infringe on the market site which was still trading from the town centre during the infancy of these plans in the early 1980s.

Various versions of the original shopping centre plans and its positioning were submitted as early as 1963, with some obliterating the lower end of Bank Street.

By 2008, contractor Laing O’Rourke had completed the new extension to County Square on an area which had previously been made up of both residential dwellings and commercial premises, two public houses. The site covered two street areas.

Despite the best efforts of the centre’s owners and management, one of the largest retail units within the extension has still failed to attract a tenant in space that is certainly capable of accommodating a medium sized department store.

This space, together with the recently closed BHS store in County Square’s central square will hopefully attract long-term tenants sooner rather than later.

The BHS store had originally opened as Tesco Home and Wear in 1975 but ceased to be a supermarket when the premises closed in August 1987.

We shall see what the new Elwick Place development attracts when complete. One would hope that one occupant will trigger others to follow.

This week Remember When looks back to July 2006 when the County Square extension works were in full flow.

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Another view of Apsley Street in July 2006, showing two piling rigs sitting close to the rear of the original centre. Until the new development commenced, the area had for many years been used as Ashford Borough Council car parks after the old...

Apsley Street, July 2006, showing work forging ahead on the extension to the County Square shopping centre, which opened in 1975. Apsley Street can be seen, left, where the red Vauxhall Astra is parked, with Godinton Road in the immediate foreground....

Godinton Road, July 2006, where the lower section of the road already been stopped up at this point and had previously joined up with Bank Street in the distance. Excavations during the works found many of the backfilled cellars of one-time properties...