Going, going, gone: 9 landmark Telford buildings that have been demolished including pubs, schools and a cinema

While most of us won't mourn the cold, grey buildings from the heyday of the Telford Development Corporation, the loss of some other landmarks - like the Clifton in Wellington - left many broken-hearted.

Along the way, the Shropshire Star has been reporting on the changes being made to the town. 

Here are some pictures from our archives of Telford's long-lost buildings.

Telford & Wrekin Council civic offices  

Those who may have forgotten what Telford town centre looked like pre-Southwater may struggle to remember the imposing grey buildings that made up Telford & Wrekin Council's civic and administrative offices.

From the mid 1970s, Malinslee House and Walker House housed around 800 council employees until demolition work began in 2013.

Within a year, the office blocks had been replaced by the Asda superstore, petrol station and car park that sit on the site today.

Reynolds House

The demolition of Telford's Reynolds House and its many mirrored windows began in February 2018.

The building, on Ironmasters Way in Telford town centre, was built in the 1980s and was made up of four floors of office space.

When it was being torn down, plans were in place to replace it with a contemporary L-shaped head office for Housing Plus Group.

But somewhere along the way those plans were abandoned. Today, in the place of Reynolds House, stands the new digital skills and enterprise hub - The Quad.

The Haygate pub, Wellington

The Wellington pub beloved by rock and metal music fans was a hotbed for up-and-coming musicians before it closed in 2018.

A year after the owners fulfilled a long-standing dream to move abroad, diggers moved in to pull the pub down. 

In 2021, plans to build 18 apartments on the vacant plot of land were given the go-ahead by Telford & Wrekin Council - but four years on, the site remains vacant.

Old Shawbirch pub, Trench

The Old Shawbirch, in Trench, called last orders in 2007. In the years following, the vacant building became a hotspot for vandalism and theft.

By 2019, local councillors branded it an 'eyesore' and were calling for the building to be knocked down.

It was finally demolished in 2020, with planning permission granted to build housing on the site.

Like the Haygate, several years on, the site on the corner of Trench Road and Furnace Lane remains empty and boarded up.

Sutton Hill shops

By 2012, Sutton Hill was almost at the end of a huge £7m regeneration that saw the creation of new shops, road links and improved parking and a new community centre.

32 homes were torn down to make way for the project and the final stage of demolition took place in June 2012 with the felling of a row of old shops.

The Clifton, Wellington

Against the wishes of many angry locals, the 1930s cinema on Bridge Road in Wellington closed in 1981.

In the years that followed, the Art Deco style building hosted a supermarket, a laser-tag arena and - in most recent memory - the town's Dunelm.

But after the furnishing store moved to a retail park in Telford town centre in 2012, the future of the building was left uncertain.

An attempt to reopen the cinema was launched, but the community group behind it were ultimately unable to purchase or lease the property (don't worry - they opened The Orbit instead!). 

Demolition of the iconic building eventually took place in September 2023, with plans to build a 63-unit extra care facility in its place approved in July last year.

Sutherland School, Trench

Sutherland Co-operative Academy, as it was known in its final guise, closed on July 3, 3015.

The school was amalgamated with Wrockwardine Wood Arts Academy to form one larger school, Telford Priory School - now, New Road Academy - in Oakengates.

The former school was demolished in 2016 to make way for a new housing estate comprising 123 homes.

Old Charlton School, Wellington

Around the same time as diggers were pulling down the Sutherland School, work was underway in Wellington to fell the old Charlton School building.

The site, on Severn Drive, moved onto the site of the former Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College in 2016, which closed the previous year to reopen as Holy Trinity Academy in Priorslee.