The demolition of a Birmingham city centre landmark, marking another step in the redevelopment of New Street station has become an internet hit with more than a thousand people logging on to website YouTube to watch Stephenson Tower coming down to make way for a new John Lewis store.

The 200ft (61m) high block which was opened in 1966 by the city's Lord Mayor, has finally disappeared from the Birmingham skyline earlier this month after a six-month operation to carefully remove it brick by brick, starting from the top; one floor at a time within a scaffold "wrap". The operation carried out by Keltbray saw over 7,000 tonnes of concrete removed during the demolition with around 95% of the material being recycled.

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The demolition of the 22-storey residential tower block was filmed second by second, and a speeded up version of its demise was posted onto internet video site YouTube at the beginning of February. Since then, more than 1,000 people have logged on to the site to view it being consigned to history.

The demolition is the first stage in the construction of a new £100 million John Lewis department store and forms part of the £600 million redevelopment of The Pallasades shopping centre and New Street train station, dubbed the Gateway project.

(CD/GK)