Owners of Williams & Griffin buy Jobcentre building

THE owners of Williams & Griffin have bought the building housing Colchester’s Jobcentre.

The acquisition of Greytown House, next to Colchester Town Hall, will allow owners Fenwick to offer a base for contractors during a planned £30 million expansion of the High Street department store.

A spokesman confirmed Fenwick bought Greytown House in July, and said tenants including the Jobcentre will remain there.

Comments(8)

N.T.Franklin says...
3:57pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Job Centre made unemployed

theequaliser1 says...
4:00pm Tue 2 Oct 12

It is wrong for the Job Centre or Joke Shop as it is more commonly known to be in the high street Willy Gees needs to kick them out ASAP. Crown Buildings in chapel street is hardly used now and the Benefits Fortress needs to be moved and relocated to Crown Buildings from the High Street. The Job Centre is an awful eyesore in the high street and an awful place to have to go cap in hand to look for work and ask for benefits.
The service is very badly run and has been for years. Years ago the Labour Exchange used to be in stockwell street in a lovely building equipped with pasting tables to sign on with circa 1976!!!
The staff can move to chapel street in the DSS monstrosity monolith and they will have to walk a little further to get their sarnies and cuppucino's at lunch time.
Then they can fill there new fortress up with more of their shaven headed security guards, to protect them when they reject people for benefits with rules and regs levied on them by the orwellian state.

not disclosed says...
4:16pm Tue 2 Oct 12

such passion equaliser.

I can remember being out of work in the early 1970`s.
It was a period of engineering being very short of work due to R/R aero engines going bust.
not out of work for long, but the queues at my labour exchange were quite long then, and when we got to the front, we were faced with a nice/scruffy, buff card to sign next to.
could have been dick turpin signing for all they knew.

1970`s eh, was it "that" long ago?

Sdapeze says...
5:01pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Never been out of work myself so can only imagine what went on. But all of the companies I ever worked for have long gone. Willie G's are clearly doing well - and good for them. Why don't they buy the Town Hall as well? That is redundant now. Perhaps next year!

angryman!!! says...
5:21pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Yes agree, that it is an incredibly ugly building hopefully they regenerate it aswel, but sounds like they are using it as base so maybe not

Im_Like_HELLO says...
5:41pm Tue 2 Oct 12

theequaliser1: if the job centre isn't in the high street then it should still be in a central location for accessibility. Anyway, good to hear a local name has plans for expansion.

Simon Taylor says...
10:49pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Greytown House is illustrated in Making Townscape, (Tugnutt & Robertson, 1987) as an prime example of bad architecture.

TheCaptain says...
12:24pm Wed 3 Oct 12

An ugly building, she be replaced.

The Job Centre could move to Chapel Street. There's no need to be in the town centre and is only 5 minutes away anyway.

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