Demolition work has started on a 20-storey tower block to make way for a £300 million regeneration scheme.

Edgbaston House, in Duchess Road on the Calthorpe Estate in Edgbaston, is being razed to enable construction work on the New Garden Square project.

The 10.7-acre, mixed-use development sits alongside the A456 Hagley Road and will contain new offices, 345 apartments, shops, a 100-bedroom hotel, restaurants and bars set around a garden square.

The project will retail the existing grade II-listed buildings fronting Hagley Road.

New Garden Square is a partnership between Calthorpe Estates and U+I Group which specialises in major mixed-use regeneration projects.

A demolition crane starts to bring down Edgbaston House on the Calthorpe Estate
A demolition crane starts to bring down Edgbaston House on the Calthorpe Estate

Calthorpe Estates has appointed specialist DSM Group to carry out the demolition of Edgbaston House using the biggest rig of its kind in the UK and the second tallest in the world.

The demolition is expected to be finished by the end of October.

Ralph Minott, development director of Calthorpe Estates, said: "Time and careful planning has gone into this phase of New Garden Square, for which we have appointed the experienced and safe hands of DSM.

"The demolition of Edgbaston House highlights our strong ambitions for this exciting redevelopment project.

"In the coming years, we will see the Birmingham skyline change as New Garden Square takes shape and occupies the place of where Edgbaston House once stood.

Edgbaston House will make way for a £300m mixed-use development
Edgbaston House will make way for a £300m mixed-use development

"This is a milestone in the transformation of an outdated, mainly vacant, commercial estate, less than a mile from the city centre, into a high-quality, vibrant and accessible new destination in the commercial heart of Edgbaston."

New Garden Square is the second major regeneration project currently taking place on the Calthorpe Estate.

The Village focuses on the roads around Greenfield Crescent and has already seen new bars and shops open in vacant properties there including pub The Physician and high end furniture stores Neptune and Oka.