There is a new look to Huddersfield town centre.
A central block has finally been razed to the ground after months of work.
The demolition of the St Peter’s building complex neared completion as the block was flattened yesterday.
This week bulldozers have been clearing away the last of the rubble to make way for a council car park.
The complex, bought by the Homes and Communities Agency, included some historic architecture, including the former Northumberland Street Primitive Methodist Sunday School, built in 1889.
A time capsule was found in the former school which contained documents relating to the building, which cost �3,000 to build.
Newspapers dating back to 1888 were also found in the lead-lined box.
The adjoining 1964-built St Peter’s tower block was home to Huddersfield YMCA and later Huddersfield Polytechnic and one of the town’s first Chinese restaurants, the Hong Kong.
But upkeep of the buildings, then owned by Kirklees Council, became too expensive to maintain.
The Government’s Homes and Communities Agency, which took on the site after Yorkshire Forward was scrapped, had said that revamping the existing site would cost £11m in contrast to £750,000 to pull the buildings down.
Demolition work ground to a halt last month after a gas leak was discovered.
It is thought a contractor hit a gas main.
