If you were drinking coffee outside Throwing Buns this week, you’d have overheard the theories about the rope-dangling antics above the County Hall Museum. Are they human pigeon scarers, a new art installation, rehearsals for ‘Strictly Come Dangling’ or what?.

More likely, they are inspecting the stone façade up close, checking the carvings and mortar.

One of their tools looks like a moisture meter for detecting damp within the stone and mortar, finding any problems before time and weather can do more harm.

For over a year, the corner building on West St Helen Street has been supported by scaffolding and surrounded by sandbags after its side wall became unstable. This September, the old unsafe wall was finally demolished.

This October, work began to rebuild it. A new structure is taking shape — breeze blocks for the inside wall and a brick frontage to match the rest of the building.

It’s good to see such steady progress after such a long wait. Over the years, quite a few long-standing issues in central Abingdon, highlighted here and elsewhere, have now been tackled. One exception is the Upper Reaches Hotel.

Work at 3 West St Helen Street has been ongoing for two weeks now. The building’s end wall has been taken down and the scaffolding on that side removed, revealing the plastic sheeting that now covers the exposed section. This is the most visible progress on the project in a year.

Work has begun to take down the end wall of the scaffolded building near the top of West St Helen Street.

The scaffold was erected in October 2024 after widening cracks led the district council’s Building Control team to act on safety grounds.

The situation has affected many people. Pedestrian access has been restricted, which has been particularly difficult for disabled and elderly people. It has also closed off rear access and parking for some residents and blocked the rear access to the Grapes pub (currently under refurbishment). Residents of the flats above moved out, and Pappy’s Jamaican restaurant was forced to vacate the building.

No timescale for completion has been announced, although Pappy’s put up a ‘Coming Soon’ banner a few weeks ago.